


Felix vs (Gay Panic)²

by iridescentmusings



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: M/M, OT3, badboy changbin and hyunjin, dance student felix, dance student hyunjin, established changjin, felix POV, misunderstood changjin, music student changbin, softboy felix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-09-13 03:37:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16884918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iridescentmusings/pseuds/iridescentmusings
Summary: Everywhere he went, Felix turned heads. However, after moving to Korea, only two people succeeded in turning his.That was where his problems began.-----------Felix/Changbin/Hyunjin OT3





	1. part one

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ashtin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashtin/gifts).



1.

 

_ Felix Lee, at nineteen years of age, moved to Korea. Suddenly, he was twenty instead of nineteen, his teenage status stripped away in a split-second, speaking a language which felt wildly unfamiliar to him and thousands of miles away from most of his family. Understandably, everyone wondered why the beautiful new student had made such a decision, though they were glad he did if only for the chance to look at him in person. Everywhere he went, Felix turned heads, some to the extent that they looked like they were attempting to morph into an owl as they craned their necks while he went by in the halls. However, only two people succeeded in turning his.  _

 

_ That was where his problems began. _

 

\-----------------------

 

When his flight arrived, Felix awkwardly thanked the staff, hoping desperately that he was pronouncing everything correctly. He could completely understand written Hangul, given that he had family in Korea and kept in contact with them pretty frequently via text, but he was a bit rusty on actually speaking the language as they rarely actually called each other. The only family he regularly video or audio called was his cousin Chan, and Chan had moved over to Korea from Australia eight years ago so they tended to talk in English both as a change for Chan which would also help him keep his accent and for Felix’s benefit. He was regretting not conversing in his second language more, but he couldn’t change the past, only improve moving forward.

 

It had been a sudden decision, his transfer to Seoul University for his second year; he’d only had twelve days to pack up his life into two suitcases and try desperately to cram conversational skills into his head. But here he was, in South Korea, dragging his suitcases behind him as he exited the border security area and scanned the crowd again and again until-

 

“FELIX!” someone screamed so loudly that their voice cut through the loud hustle and bustle of the busy airport, a distinct tone in their accent which reminded Felix of what he’d just left behind. Spinning around, he saw his older cousin sprinting towards him, earning a disapproving look from an elderly couple who he nearly careened into. Chan didn’t seem to care- he hadn’t seen his little cousin in person since their shared aunt’s wedding four years ago in Sydney.

 

“Chan! Oh my god hi, it’s so good to see you!” Felix exclaimed, letting his suitcases fall to the floor beside him as he practically leapt into his arms. Chan was one of his best friends, always had been, and he’d missed him so much despite messaging him near-daily and making time for at least two FaceTime calls per week. 

 

“How was your flight, lil bro?” Chan asked excitedly, beaming from ear to ear once they finally pulled apart. 

 

“Long, dull, stuffy and with no leg room,” Felix summarised. “At least I got to eat unlike the poor girl next to me; she was vegan and they tried giving her a ham sandwich, then an omelette, then a cheeseboard and then finally gave up and just gave her an apple. Ten and a half hours and that was all she got.”

 

“Yikes,” Chan grimaced. 

 

“Yeah I gave her the little bag of salad that came with my meal cause I felt so bad for her,” Felix laughed, relinquishing one of his bags to Chan as they made their way out of the airport and hauled the suitcases into a train carriage. 

 

“We should probably start speaking Korean now, Felix,” Chan said apologetically, switching languages. They had agreed upon doing so on their last phone call, deciding it was better to ease him into it with someone who knew to talk slightly slower than to speak exclusively English among themselves and drop him in the deep end with native speakers.

 

Felix sighed, but nodded. “Yeoboseyo? I mean- hello?” he replied, earning himself a slap on the arm.

 

“Don’t you dare, Lee Felix,” Chan said, trying to look annoyed but clearly holding back laughter at the reference.

 

“Okay,  _ okay _ ,” Felix surrendered, now speaking Korean whilst holding a hand up to stop Chan hitting him again. 

 

“So, you’ll be meeting my friends soon. I’ve tried to warn them that your spoken Korean is a little rusty but they’re all pretty excitable so they may forget, just to warn you,” Chan informed him. “I wouldn’t put it past them to have let themselves into my apartment when we get back- they have no problem doing that usually.”

 

“So this is Woojin and Jisung, right?” Felix checked. He’d ‘met’ the two of them several times, albeit normally briefly, while on video call with Chan.

 

“Yep, and Jisung has started bringing along two friends from his year, Seungmin and Jeongin, so they’re all in the year below you,” his cousin clarified. “Brats, the lot of them, but they’re a good bunch.”

 

_ Right _ , he remembered now. Jisung was actually older than him by a day, but was the year below because he’d missed the best part of a year of school due to illness as a child. “Okay, Woojin, Jisung, Seungmin, Jeongin. Got it.”

 

“If Jeongin tries to get you to call him by a nickname, don’t,” Chan warned. “He’s tried a couple out already but he’s currently trying to make us all use ‘I.N’ instead of his actual name, thinks it makes him sound cool or something. None of us humour him so you don’t need to, don’t worry.”

 

“Alright, noted. Anything else I should be forewarned about?”

 

“Can’t think of anything off the top of my head- oh, this is our stop!” 

 

They hurried themselves off the train and onto the platform, Felix nearly forgetting his suitcase but remembering just in time. 

 

“Idiot,” Chan sighed, but he was smiling fondly so it took the edge off. “The flat’s about a twenty minute walk from here so we don’t need to bother with any more public transport.”

 

That was a relief. Felix was more than ready for fresh air after his long journey. It felt like he’d been cooped up inside for  _ days _ . Thankfully the time difference was minimal, so he wasn’t suffering from jetlag on top of his already considerable exhaustion. 

 

Just as Chan had estimated, they reached his flat twenty minutes later. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but also wasn’t bad as far as student flats went. Felix had seen much worse, had lived in worse in fact in his first year at university in Sydney. Thankfully, Chan’s friends didn’t appear to have crashed the place as Chan had warned they might.

 

He followed Chan down a small hallway into a room which was pretty much empty asides from furniture. “Figured I’d let you decorate,” Chan told him, hefting the suitcase he’d been carrying onto the bed next to where Felix had just dumped the other one. “Need any help unpacking?” he offered.

 

“I should be good, I don’t have much,” Felix replied, already unzipping one of the cases and pulling out t-shirts. “If you hear snoring, though, come shake me. I won’t sleep through the night if I take a nap now,” he sighed, looking wistfully at the pillows and wishing he could lay his head down for  _ just one minute _ .

 

“Will do. I’ll leave you to it then and go order some food. Fancy anything in particular?” 

 

“I’m good with whatever, you know the stuff I hate so as long as it isn’t any of that we’re set.”

 

Chan left him be, and Felix sorted his life from Australia into drawers, cupboards and the wardrobe. All of it only took half an hour, so little did he have with him. With one more longing look at the bed, he left his new room and walked through to the lounge area, where Chan was sitting on the couch with freshly delivered chicken. Felix rushed over at the sight, stomach suddenly feeling very empty as he realised he hadn’t eaten since that dry mystery meat sandwich he had been given on the plane about six hours ago.

While they ate, Chan filled him in on random things about life in Seoul that he had forgotten to mention and told countless anecdotes about his friendship group. Felix could tell how much Chan genuinely loved them, and a part of his heart hurt that he’d been so far away from his cousin for years on end. The fact that he’d get to live with one of his favourite people in the world had been reason enough to move on its own, let alone the incentive of escaping the shit going down back in Australia. He could, however, sense that Chan was holding back on telling him something, though what that was he hadn’t the foggiest. 

 

So late notice was his sudden move that Felix was actually starting university the very next day, as it was already a couple weeks into the semester. Once it was finally late enough to be considered an acceptable time to go to bed, Felix practically collapsed into the welcoming arms of sleep, out like a light until the morning, when Chan’s loud alarm blared through the whole apartment. 

 

The two of them drowsily ate together at the breakfast bar in the kitchen, waking up significantly more once Chan had poured them both strong coffee. Felix wasn’t sure exactly what he’d need for the day ahead, so packed similarly to how he would for his course back in Sydney and hoped it would suffice, rushing around his room in a blur checking he hadn’t forgotten anything vital. Eventually, Chan rapped his knuckles twice on the wood of Felix’s door.

 

“Time to go, Lix,” he told him, looking sympathetic as Felix was visibly shaking. “You’re gonna be great, don’t you worry. No matter what you know I’ll always be here to help you out- what more could a guy want?” he joked, successfully lightening the mood as Felix couldn’t help but laugh.

 

As if Felix wasn’t already anxious enough, the bus broke down. It took another half an hour but he and Chan finally made it to the university, out of breath from speed-walking all the way up a considerable hill. After a hasty goodbye as Chan legged it to his composition class, having been assured multiple times that he  _ didn’t _ need to show Felix the way, the younger was on his own with a map of the university in one hand and his schedule in the other. He was meant to be in a class in room B201, but knowing that and getting there were two different matters entirely, especially as he was feeling too socially anxious to ask any of the people in the hallways for directions.

 

Eyes on his map and barely looking up from him, it was probably inevitable that he would end up walking into someone. In fact, he was closer to running than walking when he turned a corner at speed and collided heavily with a shorter guy, sending both of them to the floor and the papers held in both their hands all over the floor. Suddenly, the whole hallway fell into a hush, all of the students observing the two of them in a tense, anticipatory sort of silence. Looking up, Felix saw a number of people that seemed worried on his behalf for some reason. He didn’t get why- all he’d done was knock someone over, surely they’d understand. From the expression of horror on one girl’s face, you’d think the dark haired student was going to pull a knife and put an abrupt end to Felix’s short-lived time in Seoul.

 

“God, I’m so sorry- wait sorry,  _ I’m really sorry, _ ” Felix apologised, first in English and then, once he remembered to, in Korean. “Here, let me help you with those,” he offered, starting to assist the guy in gathering up the scattered mess of sheet music that had spread all around them on the floor. 

 

Everyone was still watching them with bated breath, waiting for the other to reply to Felix’s messy apology. A few people gasped when, instead of whatever the hell it was they were expecting, he simply replied “Hey, it’s okay. Accidents happen, don’t worry about it,” finally looking up and meeting Felix’s eyes.

 

That was the first time that day that Felix’s heart stopped in place. This guy was pretty as hell. No, not just pretty- he was probably the most beautiful person Felix had ever seen in his nineteen- no, in his  _ twenty  _ years of living.

 

“I uh- I, um,” Felix stammered intelligently, settling for wordlessly handing over the pile of papers he’d gathered up. The other boy smiled at him, though if it was in response to him making a fool over himself or in thanks for helping with the fallen music, Felix was unsure. Whatever reason, this guy smiling must be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence judging by the reactions of the gathered crowd.

 

“Problem, everyone?” the guy asked pointedly, glaring at a couple of people who had been outright gawking and whispering loudly. They soon shut up after that.

 

Face softening a little, he turned back to Felix.

 

“Haven’t seen you around here,” he observed, picking up the last of his dropped belongings and standing up, offering a hand to Felix to help him do the same. His hand felt like it was on fire for the few seconds their skin made contact, and Felix shivered involuntarily. Meanwhile, he could swear that someone was actually taking pictures of them in the background.

 

“I’m new, I’m Australia. I mean, I’m  _ from _ Australia, I just moved here,” Felix explained, flusteredly muddling his words and wanting to leap out of the nearest open window. For some reason still desperate to keep talking to the stunning stranger, he wracked his brain frantically.

 

Right! Music! They were both taking it.

 

“I actually-” he started to say, but was cut off as about two hundred people suddenly streamed out of a nearby lecture theatre, carrying Felix off to the side of the hallway. By the time the flow of bodies had ebbed, the boy was gone.

 

_ Damnit. _

 

And now he had completely missed his first class, not that he would have made it for more than ten minutes of the end anyway. B201 no longer his goal, Felix started trying to find C47 for dance, which appeared to be in the complete opposite direction. Luckily, a TA saw how completely disoriented he looked and led him the right way for a while until they were only a couple of corridors away and Felix could definitely make it on his own. 

 

Only two minutes late, Felix opened the door to C47 and entered the studio. The teacher immediately approached him, looking quizzical. “Hello, sir, I’m Lee Yongbok,” Felix told him, repressing a shudder at the hated name that he needed to introduce himself to the instructor by as that would be what he was registered as on the university system. “I go by my English name, Felix, though- I just moved here from Australia,” he explained.

 

“Alright then, Yongbok,” the instructor ignored his second sentence entirely. “Let’s get you integrated. We’re just doing warm-up stretches in pairs…” he trailed off, looking around the room. At least a dozen people waved to get his attention, wanting to be Felix’s partner for some reason. “I think I’ll put you with Hwang over there,” he announced, pointing in the direction of a boy dressed in all black with his face mostly obscured by a mask. He stood slumped against a mirror on the far side of the room and had long, floppy white-blonde hair.

 

Felix got a distinct feeling of deja vu as he was once again surrounded by the sound of horrified gasps while he walked across the room to the guy he’d just been paired with. He didn’t even look up from his phone for a full minute as Felix stopped next to him. When he did, however, his eyes lit up in interest, face no longer expressionless but intrigued. In the background, Felix could hear the instructor telling them to start the warm-up, but all sounds had pretty much faded to white noise as the boy in front of him had just taken off his facemask.

 

As if Felix hadn’t seen enough unreal beauty today in the form of the guy from the hallway, his vision was now assaulted by the ethereal visage that was this ‘Hwang’ guy. If he’d been a model and he’d seen someone like this on the street, he would’ve quit his job on the spot, knowing he could never achieve such a level of perfection. What the hell was in the Seoul water supply that not one but  _ two _ people so breathtaking were at the same university?

 

He could feel his cheeks flushing, knew that when he next opened his mouth he would be awarded nothing as far as coherency was concerned. Frantically trying to calm his racing pulse, he attempted to smile normally at his warm-up partner. “Hello,” he managed to say. Wow, that wasn’t too hard, was it? “I’m Yonglix. Wait no I’m Febok. Uh-”

 

“I heard you at the front. Nice to meet you, Felix,” the other boy laughed, gaining the attention of the entire class. Felix could understand why people would be staring at the new kid, but they were staring at  _ both  _ of them, especially the other boy. If Hwang had just announced he’d killed the president, they could not have looked more shocked as they did at him just laughing.

 

“Uh,” Felix replied, still awed. “What’s your name?”

 

“Hyunjin,” he replied, smiling again, teeth flashing in a way that made Felix’s stomach turn inside out. “Shall we?”

 

Felix wasn’t sure what he was asking, but he was already willing to do anything for Hyunjin so he just nodded dumbly. Hyunjin sat down, and Felix realised he’d been referring to the stretches. The next ten minutes were perhaps the worst of Felix’s entire life. If it had been hard to speak just looking at Hyunjin, then touching him was a whole other level of panic. It was all he could do to not hyperventilate as the other boy helped him stretch out for the dance session and vice versa. 

 

Just about to pass out, or so he felt like, Felix was saved from the feeling of Hyunjin’s rough hands holding him in place while he did the splits as far down as he could go. The instructor, whose name Felix couldn’t remember from the schedule he’d shoved in his bag, called them all to the front. At least, he  _ thought  _ for a few blissful seconds that he had been saved. It was in fact far from it. 

 

“As most of you know, we will be working on dances in pairs for the next few weeks, along with the number as a whole class. Now, until recently we had an uneven number of people in the class so Hyunjin here,” he gestured to the boy stood next to Felix, “has been working on a solo number for two weeks. Felix, you can either join Hyunjin or work as a trio with one of the pairs in the class.”

 

Again, the whole class looked ready to jump at the opportunity to work with Felix.

 

“Well, I- I wouldn’t want to bother Hyunjin, so-” he began, trying to avoid having to spend more time in close proximity to the literal embodiment of every reason Felix was massively gay.

 

“Hyunjin always works alone anyway, why don’t you join us, Felix,” one girl offered. He smiled at her, but before he could take a step towards her and her partner, another voice chimed in.

 

“Don’t worry, Jiwoo,” Hyunjin countered. “I think Felix and I work well together, don’t we?” He cocked his head, raising a questioning eyebrow at Felix. His heart thundered in his chest as the movement made his hair fall away from the top of his ear, revealing an industrial piercing.

 

Luckily for Felix’s health, they wouldn’t be working on the pair dances until the next class, as this one was focused on the group number. Still, he forgot to breathe every other second because he couldn’t help but look at Hyunjin and, more often than not, he made eye contact with the boy who would be looking right back at him. At the end of the lesson, he couldn’t get out of there fast enough, scared Hyunjin would try and talk to him and even more scared about how he’d embarrass himself in response.

 

Felix had planned in advance to meet Chan outside of the dinner hall and ended up getting there slightly earlier than anticipated. While waiting for his cousin, his eyes began to wander around the hall, peeking through the doorway to see if he could spot either the guy from earlier or Hyunjin. So occupied was he with this that when Chan did finally arrive, he had to clear his throat loudly  _ twice  _ before Felix noticed his presence. 

 

“What were you thinking about so hard you didn’t hear me?” Chan asked as they walked up to get their food. When Felix blushed fiercely, Chan smirked, clearly seeing right through him. “Has someone caught your eye  _ already _ , Lix? Damn, someone works fast.”

 

“Uh, sort of,” Felix admitted, spooning rice onto his plate. “Two separate people, actually. I don’t get it, I’m not interested in anyone for ages back home and then I move here and _ BAM _ , suddenly two separate people have me making a complete fool of myself.”

 

“Korea is clearly superior. You made the right choice,” Chan joked. “So, who are these lucky ladies- what’re their names? I might know them.”

 

“They aren’t…”

 

“They aren’t what?” Chan prompted, looking curious.

 

“Aren’t girls,” Felix said heavily in a near-whisper. Chan had never come across as homophobic but they’d never talked much about relationships with each other, so he couldn’t be completely certain. Scared to look up at his cousin, Felix jumped when Chan suddenly slammed into him, side-hugging him and nearly making him drop his tray of food. “Guessing you’re cool with that, huh?” the younger laughed, trying to brush off how worried he’d really been.

 

“It’d make me just a little bit of a hypocrite if I wasn’t,” Chan replied, grabbing Felix’s sleeve and tugging him over to a table where a group of people, some of which Felix was pretty sure he recognised, were sat.

 

“Wait. Do you mean you’re-”

 

“Felix, meet Minho, Minho meet Felix. Lix, this is my boyfriend,” Chan introduced him to a slim, dark haired boy who smiled widely up at them from his seat, patting the spot next to him where Chan soon sat down. Felix took the other empty seat next to his cousin.

 

“So good to finally meet you, Felix!” Minho greeted him enthusiastically. “Channie here doesn’t shut up about his favourite cousin.”

 

“I wish I could say I’ve heard loads about you too but  _ someone _ ,” Felix jabbed his cousin in the side, “has neglected to let me know he even has a boyfriend.”

 

Shrinking under Felix’s pointed gaze, Chan defended himself. “To be fair Felix, we have literally never talked about relationships- I was never sure when to tell you, especially with what your mother said at Aunt Marie’s wedding when her coworker showed up with his husband.”

 

“Well, mother dearest certainly doesn’t speak for me,” Felix laughed, but his eyes belied something painful that he knew Chan would bring up later in private. “Besides, as I just told you- I’m gay as hell.”

 

“Oh  _ mood _ !” the table chorused, pretty much as one. Chan appeared to have found himself the gayest niche of students in Seoul to befriend; Felix was going to love it here.

 

“Hey Felix!” a blonde boy sat across from him practically shouted. “We’ve spoken a few times on FaceTime, so I’m basically his best friend already,” he boasted to the table at large. 

 

“Jisung, yeah!” Felix remembered seeing him most often if he called when Chan was in the studio, but a couple of times at Chan’s apartment too. “You’re the one who keeps telling me to call you hyung even though you’re a single day older than me.”

 

“That sure sounds like him,” another guy spoke up, sounding fond even though he was rolling his eyes at Jisung sat next to him. “Seungmin, by the way. We haven’t talked before, I don’t think.”

 

A few introductions later, and Felix could feel himself settling into the group with a feeling akin to coming home after a long and tiring day. They were all so lovely to him, with Chan, Jisung and Seungmin all helping when he didn’t quite understand something one of them said, that he could have cried. Jisung and Seungmin were both fluent in English so Felix, to his surprise, had another two people to turn to. 

 

Eventually Chan and Felix both had a break from the main conversation, Jisung’s friend Jeongin engaging the others with a story about a lecture that was just a little too fast for Felix to process. Chan turned to his younger cousin, raising an eyebrow as he finally asked “So, these two guys. Anyone I’d know?”

 

“One of them does music, I think, unless it’s a hobby- you might know him, but I didn’t catch his name. The other guy is in my dance class- his name’s Hyunjin-”

 

“Oh no Felix you do  _ not _ wanna go there,” Chan warned. “For multiple reasons, really, but mainly because that guy is bad news.”

 

“Everyone was acting really weird around him,” Felix told him, still confused about the situation. “He was being perfectly nice to me, but everyone looked like he’d just whipped out a flip knife when he smiled at me. The hell’s up with that?” he questioned.

 

“Him and another guy beat this dude up last year, pretty much hospitalised him from what I heard through the grapevine. Nobody knows why they did it, but instead of getting properly punished they got off with a week’s suspension and, get this,  _ the other guy got expelled _ ,” Chan whispered conspiratorially.

 

Should Felix find the fact that Hyunjin had sent someone to the hospital hot?

 

Definitely not.

 

Did he?

 

Perhaps.

 

Definitely.

 

“Hopefully the other guy you’re into is a good one!” Chan enthused, smiling encouragingly at Felix. “Hey, at least you know which to go for if the opportunity arises.”

 

“That’s something, I guess,” Felix sighed, still not entirely dissuaded from Hyunjin. It wasn’t like the other boy would ever be interested in him anyway, he was well aware of that. He was incredibly nice to look at though, all the same.

 

Chan’s boyfriend leant past him to talk to Felix, effectively distracting him from his dilemma for a while. Also a dance major, just the year above, Minho had tonnes in common with him and made an easy partner in conversation. He could see why his cousin had fallen for the guy- not only was he breathtakingly beautiful, he was also clearly a lovely person, though not without a considerable side serving of cutting wit and sarcasm.

 

“You really pulled, bro,” Felix complimented Chan in English.

 

“Tell me about it,” Chan sighed, laughing as Minho narrowed his eyes at them. Switching back to Korean, he reassured him that they were only saying good things. Minho didn’t quite believe him until he translated, at which point he rolled his eyes to the heavens, albeit fondly.

 

Felix’s mind drifted back to cute music student guy from the hallway, and how the students had been watching him like an unexploded bomb about to go off at any second. It wasn’t like Felix actively  _ decided _ to go for the dangerous ones, they just drew him in without realising, so it seemed. Music Guy had an eyebrow piercing, for Christ’s sake, not to mention the slits in said eyebrow; could he really be blamed for going into a major gay panic at the mere sight of him?

 

All being well, Music Guy would just look dangerous and turn out to be well loved by the university, a perfectly respectable person for Felix to pine over. He could forget about the stunning Hyunjin and stop stammering over him in dance- a win-win situation. 

 

Yet, something nagged at his subconscious, some sort of premonition. He wasn’t stupid enough to ever believe that his life could ever be so easy.

 

Not even two days later, he was proven right. 

 

Having somehow held his timetable upside down and not noticed due to his confusion over getting lost yet again, he accidentally ended up at room 61 instead of 19 in the music block. It was a small practice room, making Felix wonder just how small his vocal class was. Nonetheless, he pushed the door open, apology for being a little late dying in his throat as he realised this was  _ definitely _ not the right room. Although it was occupied, it was not by a class, but by just two people.

 

Said people were practicing something alright, but it wasn’t music in any sense of the definition. Unless the shorter guy pressing the other against the wall and kissing him, hands reached up to tangle in his hair, was some sort of modern experimental symphony that Felix had yet to study. It wasn’t one he’d altogether mind learning, given that when the two broke apart he realised that the guy against the wall was none other than Hyunjin. His eyes widened at the sight of Felix, though Hyunjin didn’t seem as flustered as he did, oddly enough. He was breathing heavily, his beautiful lips swollen a little and bright red, the colour vibrant against the metal of his lip ring. Opening them, he seemed about to say something to Felix in response to his sudden intrusion. 

 

He hadn’t noticed it earlier, probably due to him trying with everything in him not to stare at the model-esque student during class, but something flashed in Hyunjin’s mouth as his lips parted. A tongue piercing. Of  _ course _ he had a fucking tongue piercing. The lip ring and the multiple ear piercings weren’t enough for Felix to deal with, apparently.

 

Not that he’d been ready to seconds before, but he now knew for sure that he could not remotely face whatever the hell Hyunjin had to say. Making a strangled noise in his throat from embarrassment for what felt like the fiftieth time that week, Felix ran away in search of his actual classroom, not managing to catch a glimpse of the other boy’s face. Probably for the best as that meant one less person he had to actively avoid. 

 

He’d been trying to tell himself that Hyunjin probably wasn’t even into guys. Now he knew he was, but that he was already taken, it was all the more crushing. At least there was still hallway guy for him to pin all his unrealistic expectations. Hyunjin was tied with him for The Most Beautiful Person Ever, so it wasn’t like all was completely lost, as much as it felt like that in the moment.

 

Yes, he reasoned. Chan had already warned him off Hyunjin, so it was for the best that he was already taken by whoever that other boy was.

 

For the best.

 

It was for the best. 

 

He repeated the mantra in his head over and over again as he walked to his group Vocal class -the right room this time- and apologised to Professor Shin for turning up ten minutes late. He didn’t mind, in fact making a pointed comment about how  _ some _ people couldn’t even manage to get there before the lost new kid. 

 

Felix did his best to concentrate as they ran through some scales to warm up, he really did. As much as he tried, however, his mind couldn’t help but drift. He wondered which guy was lucky enough that he got to kiss Hyunjin like  _ that _ . Felix had only been kissed once, a sloppy affair brought about by a round of truth or dare at his twelfth birthday party. That was with a girl, so he couldn’t really count it. Didn’t want to, at least.

 

He needed to stop.

 

Hyunjin was taken, very clearly so. It would only bring about certain heartbreak were his feelings to deepen. Plus, as Chan pointed out at lunch the other day, he still had hallway guy to pine over, if he could ever find him again. He’d been on the lookout while walking between classes, but hadn’t had any success so far. With the luck he’d been having, hallway guy would definitely be straight, though. 

 

As if summoned by Felix’s thoughts, the door opened and in  _ he _ came.

 

“So kind of you to join us, Seo,” Professor Shin greeted him with no small degree of sarcasm. “Will your friend be gracing us with his presence also?”

 

“No, sir. He’s had to go home because his mother suddenly called,” hallway boy,  _ Seo _ , explained.

 

“Very well, take your seat,” the professor sighed, and Seo walked over to one of only two free seats in the room, both of which were right next to Felix, because of course they were.

 

He wanted to say something to him, as anything would be an upgrade from the “I’m Australia” fiasco of their last meeting, but Shin restarted their warm-up exercises so he didn’t have a chance to just yet. 

 

Seo’s eyes lit up in recognition as he sat down next to Felix and he looked like he wanted to say something as well. Sure enough, once Professor Shin left the room for a minute to grab some sheet music he’d left in his office, Seo turned to him.

 

“Hey, I wondered when I’d see you around again,” he told Felix, making his heart do all sorts of things that he’d have thought hearts were physically incapable of. “Didn’t realise you’d be doing music.”

 

“Yeah I,” Felix’s voice cracked a little and he wished the ground would also crack, more than a little, and swallow him whole. “I thought you might be in one of my classes when I saw you’d dropped sheet music.”

 

“I major in music composition,” he replied. “But I have to take a couple of other music-related classes like this one- don’t always make it to them, though, as you may have gathered from Shin’s reaction.”

 

“Music composition? That’s so cool, I wish I was better at that,” Felix sighed, realising too late that sighing while looking at his crush probably wasn’t number one on the list of ‘how to be subtle’.

 

“I’m sure you have other strengths.”

 

Was it just Felix’s wishful thinking, or was there a hint of flirtiness in Seo’s tone?

 

“I never caught your name, by the way,” Felix enquired, suppressing a shiver as the other boy smiled at him. He hadn’t been paying attention, but suddenly Felix realised that -like in the hallway- all eyes were on them again. It wasn’t a large class, about ten people other than them, yet it was more than enough to rattle him. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat as his gaze flickered once around the room and then back to Seo.

 

“Don’t pay those idiots any mind,” he told him, obviously noticing the source of Felix’s anxiety. “I’m Seo Changbin. What about y-”

 

“Right, everyone up!” Shin commanded as he strode purposefully back into the classroom. “We’re going to be practicing acapella today to improve your natural tuning. Does anyone know Pentatonix?”

 

Only Felix and Changbin nodded, the rest of the class -uneducated idiots, the lot of them- looked on blankly. 

 

They spent the rest of the lesson separated into groups by part, so Felix was of course singing bass whereas Changbin had been allocated to baritone. He could sort of hear him from the other side of the room where the rest of his group were standing a foot away from him like he had something contagious. Changbin’s voice was incredibly good, from what little Felix could hear of it, which wasn’t helping his massive crush on the other boy. Felix was two other guys who couldn’t hit the notes as low as Felix could and were looking at him with something akin to awe in their expressions.

 

“What’s with you and Seo?” one of them, Taejin, asked in a hushed voice, furtively glancing over at Changbin as if he’d set a precedent of murdering anyone who mentioned his name. His other groupmate, Wonhae, leant in to listen for Felix’s response as well.

 

“I don’t understand what you’re asking me…” Felix said slowly, wondering if something was lost in translation.

 

“Do you know each other?”

 

“Why was he smiling at you?”

 

Both of them asked him questions in unison, resulting in him barely hearing either. He heard more of the second and managed to piece it together in his head after a couple of seconds, so chose to reply to that one.

 

“We were just talking, is it really that weird for someone to smile when they’re talking to someone?”

 

“For Seo? Yes, absolutely,” Wonhae confirmed.

 

“Yeah he’s like mad antisocial, I’ve only ever seen him smile at one person before you,” added Taejin, shaking his head in awe.

 

“Can we just get on with learning our part?” Felix sighed deeply, subtly hiding his face with his music. He felt himself blush slightly at the implication that he was something unique where Changbin was concerned, which was frankly ridiculous. Felix knew that he was nothing special.

 

Reluctantly, the two of them complied. By the time the lesson was through, the Australian had definitely  _ not _ spent half the lesson subconsciously gazing over at Changbin, and had also totally not been caught doing so by the aforementioned boy several times. His face had not in the  _ slightest _ spent the best part of the hour flushed after those interactions, which didn’t happen.

 

As he said, definitely not.

 

He wanted to try and think of some excuse to talk to Changbin at the end of class, but didn’t get a chance to embarrass himself yet again as Professor Shin wanted to give him some catch up notes to write up. All he got was a glimpse of Changbin walking away with some guy wearing a beanie at the end- they must have been waiting for him outside, but he didn’t see their face.

 

The next time Felix saw one of his crushes was worse than all the times he’d embarrassed himself combined. You see, he didn’t just see one of them. He saw  _ both _ of them at the same time, and not because they happened to coincidentally be in the same room.

 

Felix had been sat at his lunch table with Minho, Chan and Woojin. The younger ones of their group and Jisung were all taking some test, so had a later lunch break that day. Looking back on it, Felix was glad that it hadn’t been the whole group there to witness his hopes being smashed to the ground.

 

Lunch had started off ordinary enough. He’d run into Woojin on his way out of a practice room and they’d walked to the dining hall together, grabbed their plates of food and sat down with Felix’s cousin and his boyfriend. How Felix hadn’t noticed how in love Chan was when they were video calling, he wasn’t remotely sure; it  _ radiated _ from his every slightest gesture even when he wasn’t around Minho. He supposed he’d been holding out in fear that Felix was homophobic like he’d seen his mother to be in the past.

 

“So Felix, how’s music-crush? Learnt his name yet?” Minho asked with a smirk, uncaring as Chan socked him on the arm.

 

“Babe, Felix wasn’t meant to know I’d told you about that,” he whined. Minho just laughed.

 

“We share everything, I’m sure Felix understands.”

 

“I wish I understood a little less, to be honest,” Felix shuddered, the memory of walking in on a particularly heated makeout session the day before fresh in his mind. 

 

“So who’s ‘music-crush’?” Woojin enquired excitedly. “At least one of us has gotta know him given that Chan and I do music and Minho, well, knows everyone.”

 

“Calling me a slut, Woojinnie?” Minho pouted exaggeratedly. “I’m a taken man.”

 

“You are  _ now _ ,” Woojin replied, making his friend gasp in the same over-dramatised way. “First year was a whole other matter entirely.”

 

“First of all, fuck you,” Minho retorted.

 

“If you did then you’d be proving my point, wouldn’t you, sweetie,” he pointed out, successfully shutting Minho up for a few seconds. 

 

“Valid,” he conceded. “Anyway, about music-crush; Lixie was about to tell us what he’s learnt about him!”

 

“Yeah, I learnt his name,” Felix admitted with a long suffering sigh as his friends crowded into his space to listen more intently. He’d thought the two guys in music class had been bad, but they had nothing on these three. “It’s Seo Ch-”

 

His voice died in his throat as the whole room fell into a hush. Two boys had just walked in, hand-in-hand. Unfortunately, he knew both of them all too well. One had white blonde hair and eyes roaming the room as if looking for someone, the other the perfect height to have been the one pushing him up against the wall in that practice room.

 

“Shit, what are Hyunjin and Changbin doing in here?” Minho exclaimed. “I haven’t seen them come into the dining hall since last September. Are they looking over here? Chan, why are they looking over here?”

 

Felix choked on air as both of them, both of his crushes, who were apparently dating  _ each other _ , looked directly at him and smiled slightly upon spotting him. The whole room seemed to suddenly be very interested in the table where Felix sat, wanting to evaporate rather than spend another second under such scrutiny.

 

_ Fuck. _

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyyy!!!!! you have the lovely ashtin to thank for this, cause she posted this tweet (https://twitter.com/lovelyjjix/status/1063663323022020608) and thus this,, mess was born. anyway this is kinda her christmas present i guess so hope u enjoy ash!!
> 
> @ everyone else pls hmu on twitter @spearachas!! and comment plsplspls i thrive off comments. kudos also make me go <3333
> 
> more to come of this!!! this is only the beginning. i'm also writing a multi chapter hpverse au that's minsung and changlix main, there's a few chapters up so feel free to check that one out
> 
> thank u to cat for proofreading i love u


	2. part two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He’d never crushed so hard or so fast. Of course it had to be on two separate people that he could never have.

2.

 

_“Shit, what are Hyunjin and Changbin doing in here?” Minho exclaimed. “I haven’t seen them come into the dining hall since last September. Are they looking over here? Chan, why are they looking over here?”_

 

_Felix choked on air as both of them, both of his crushes, who were apparently dating each other, looked directly at him and smiled slightly upon spotting him. The whole room seemed to suddenly be very interested in the table where Felix sat, wanting to evaporate rather than spend another second under such scrutiny._

 

“Felix, are they looking at _you_?” Chan asked slowly, tilting his head. “What’ve you done to warrant that?”

 

“I, uh, I-” Felix stammered, unable to form words while _they_ were both there, gazes fixed on him and dissolving his brain into mush with their combined power. “They?”

 

“They what?” Minho prompted.

 

“They’re… you know?” Felix couldn’t quite force the words out as he watched Changbin and Hyunjin finally stop looking at him and walk over to the lunch queue, hands still intertwined.

 

“Together? Yes,” Woojin supplied. “Have been since first year, I think.”

 

“Oh,” Felix responded, still dejected at the confirmation of that which he already knew to be true. “I suppose that makes sense.”

 

“Why?” Chan asked, cogs clearly turning as he seemed to be coming closer to some kind of realisation.

 

“They’re both like the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen, so it makes sense that they’re with each other,” Felix explained, sighing as he tried to be subtle in watching them line up for their food. Clearly he wasn’t all that subtle, as they started turning back around to look over at him and he whipped his head away so fast his neck cracked. After doing so, he realised the rest of the table were looking at him with identical quizzical expressions.

 

“Uh… Felix,” Minho spoke up.

 

“Yes?”

 

Minho was saying something, but Felix didn’t hear a word of it because he’d risked a glance back over to the two in line. Only then he had discovered that they’d picked up their food and were en route to leave the hall. Both of them were looking right back at him once more- Hyunjin in particular was very deliberately holding eye contact.

 

He didn’t know what the fuck to do, so naturally his response was to wave awkwardly. Hyunjin lifted a hand and waved back lazily, lips quirked in amusement. It was like they knew exactly what they were doing to him. After a long moment of prolonged eye contact that sent Felix into an internal spiral like none other, the couple turned and left the hall, Hyunjin’s arm looped lazily around Changbin’s waist, playing with his hand.

 

Realising he’d fully zoned out, Felix snapped back into reality with a hurried apology to Minho.

 

“Sorry Minho, what were you asking me?” he questioned, eyes wide and guilty.

 

It was instead Woojin who spoke next.

 

“Before whatever the hell _that_ was happened, you were about to say music-crush was Seo Changbin, weren’t you?” he asked softly, looking very sorry for Felix. Felix felt pretty sorry for himself as well, to be fair.

 

“Perhaps…” he confirmed.

 

“Oh my sweet summer child,” Minho murmured softly, pulling Felix into a side hug. “Cupid has truly done you dirty in Korea, huh?”

 

“Tell me about it,” bemoaned Felix, feeling Chan hug him from the other side and letting his head fall onto his cousin’s shoulder. “Why, Channie, why,” he complained more lightheartedly than he actually felt.

 

“You really have a thing for the bad ones, huh?” Minho pointed out. “You managed to crush on both sides of the uni’s ‘infamous danger couple’,” this he accompanied with air quotes, “without even realising they were together. That’s quite some talent.”

 

“You have classes with both of them, right?” Chan checked and Felix nodded. “Just try and stay away from them as much as you can, I guess?”

 

“Yeah, and I can set you up with my cousin’s friend Hyunsuk if you want? Totally hot, think I made out with him once in first year but that may have just been drunk hopefulness,” offered Minho in his own odd form of comfort. “Oh don’t be jealous baby, that was long ago,” he pouted as Chan mock-scowled at him.

 

“I’m good on the date front for now, but thank you Minho,” Felix replied. “And as for avoiding them, that’s kinda a problem given that Hyunjin is my partner for the dance project.”

 

“Shit, you _really_ did something bad in your past life, ‘Lix,” Chan exclaimed. “Try not to get too worked up over this, though. It’s just a crush and it should go away now you know they’re both taken, right?”

 

“Yeah, of course!” Felix agreed confidently, feeling anything but. They were just so pretty, his heart couldn’t help itself, no matter how much he berated it. He’d known Hyunjin wasn’t single for a few days now, and had still found himself daydreaming about him like a thirteen year old with a crush on an idol. His own crush on G-Dragon had gone a long way in making him realise his complete lack of heterosexuality at that age.

 

Though not seeming particularly convinced by Felix’s declaration, they let the topic drop.

Felix only had a science class after lunch that he didn’t share with either Changbin or Hyunjin, so without the way time seemed to drag on excruciatingly around them, the lesson flew by. As Chan had a composition class that finished an hour after Felix’s, he went to a -thankfully empty- practice room and ran through his part for vocal class for a while. Growing bored of this with fifteen minutes still to go, he opted to just go and wait outside Chan’s classroom.

 

Naturally, with Felix’s luck, this was a mistake.

 

Headphones in and looking down at a game on his phone, he still managed to somehow make his way to the appropriate room without getting lost. That was the last of his fleeting good fortune for the day.

 

Still not looking up, he noticed a few people were doing the same as him and waiting outside of the composition room. Joining the ranks of four others leant against the wall opposite the classroom door, Felix jumped as the person next to him tapped him on the shoulder.

 

“Felix?” Hyunjin asked, face suddenly in his plane of vision as he leant over to peer at Felix’s face, which was mostly obscured by a mask. His eyes were even more beautiful up close. Felix wanted to die.

 

“Hyunjin? Hi!” Felix greeted him, mentally cursing every deity he could think of for their cruel sense of humour. He pulled down his face mask, hoping that Chan would come out _immediately_ even though class didn’t end for another five minutes. “What’s up?”

 

He shouldn’t be internally jumping for joy that he’d managed to make it through _one_ sentence without stammering, but he’d take the small victories when they came along.

 

“What’re you doing here?” Hyunjin queried, resting his hand high on the wall as he turned to face Felix fully. In this new position, he was even closer, practically crowding into Felix’s space as much as when they were doing the stretches in dance class. He shuddered a little just from the memory. It went without saying that the other people waiting outside were not-so-subtly looking over at the pair of them interacting like they’d grown three heads.

 

“My cousin takes this class,” he explained.

 

“Oh right, Bang Chan, wasn’t it?”

 

Hyunjin knew Chan’s name?

 

“Yeah, that’s him. I just moved in with him after getting here,” Felix added, not sure why he wanted this conversation to keep going even though it was making his insides implode. “How about you?”

 

“Oh, Binnie is in this one too! His entrance exam was so good that the uni told him he could skip first year,” Hyunjin smiled proudly. That was… insanely attractive, as if Felix really needed another reason to pine over Changbin. Not to mention that the soft look on Hyunjin’s face was also doing unfair things to Felix’s heart.

 

Why couldn’t Felix have a single nice thing?

 

“I think they offered Chan that too, but he didn’t want the extra pressure as well as his part time job,” he replied. “That’s amazing for Changbin, though! Very impressive.”

 

Felix tried and failed not to sigh slightly as he spoke, which Hyunjin _must_ have noticed. Perhaps not, however, as he didn’t seem annoyed in the way you’d expect someone would be over some guy sighing over their boyfriend. Instead, the other boy smiled again, a flash of silver briefly appearing as he wet his lips with his tongue. Felix’s mind immediately went back to the other time he’d seen Hyunjin’s tongue piercing and he could just _feel_ himself flushing bright red.

 

“How are you finding Korea so far?”

 

“The university is lovely and the people are beautiful,” Felix muddled up his sentence, distracted as Hyunjin pushed his white-blonde hair back, revealing his forehead and somehow, impossibly, looking even more attractive. “I-I mean, the other round way. The other way round. The _uni_ is beautiful. Not that t-the people aren’t.”

 

“I understood, don’t worry sweetheart,” Hyunjin laughed at Felix’s impressive demonstration of ‘How To Look Like The Dumbest Idiot’.

 

Sweetheart.

 

_Sweetheart._

 

What the fuck.

 

Felix was absolutely fine, of course.

 

For someone supposedly closed off, according to everyone else he’d mentioned the boy to, Hyunjin seemed more like a casual flirt than anything else. He obviously wasn’t serious, given that he was dating the other one of God’s divine gifts to the earth, but by fuck did it mess Felix up just the same.

 

Felix had never loved Chan more than in that moment when the door opened and he was the first student out of the classroom. Hurriedly, he said goodbye to Hyunjin and rushed to his cousin’s side. Chan had clearly noticed who he’d been talking to; from the look on his face he was getting an earful the second they were out of range.

 

Then, Changbin came out of the classroom. He headed straight for his boyfriend, Hyunjin’s hand automatically linking with his once they were close enough to each other. Hyunjin bent down and whispered something in Changbin’s ear, making him look over at Felix. Echoing Felix at lunch, he waved. Felix smiled awkwardly, nodded at him and practically dragged Chan away. For no particular reason, of course, he wanted out of that corridor as fast as humanly possible.

 

“Felix…”

 

“Don’t.”

 

“Why were you talking to Hyunjin again? That guy doesn’t start conversations with anyone other than his boyfriend so you must have-” Chan began, but Felix cut him off.

 

“Actually, it _was_ him that started it. I was looking at my phone so I didn’t realise I was stood next to me and then he just started talking to me,” Felix defended himself. “And why didn’t you tell me Changbin was in your class?”

 

“Figured it was best to steer you clear of topics with those two involved to help you stop being an idiot and crushing on two taken guys, but I see now that I was hoping in vain,” Chan sighed heavily. “You’re a dumbass, Lee Felix.”

 

“Don’t I know it,” Felix agreed despondently. “I don’t get why they keep talking to me when everyone else says they’re so unreachable. It’s confusing the hell outta me.”

 

“Can’t help you there honestly. I haven't really ever talked to Changbin and we’ve been in classes together since last year,” Chan apologised. “People tend to leave those two alone. I think I remember him chatting to a couple people in the first week before the incident happened, but nobody since unless he’s put into a group for something.”

 

The two of them were so immensely confusing, Felix couldn’t remotely keep up with them. Despite every last shred of reason in his body screaming against it, he still wanted to know them more. It was no biggie, they just consumed his every thought.

 

He’d never crushed so hard or so fast. Of course it had to be on two separate people that he could never have.

 

The next day, he had vocal class first thing. A very large part of Felix, specifically the part labelled ‘anxiety’ was screaming at him to skip it, but that would be getting into a never ending cycle. After psyching himself up for a considerable amount of time, how much so he wouldn’t ever admit to, Felix walked to his classroom. Professor Shin seemed to have implied the last lesson that Changbin was always late, but just the same Felix aimed to get there to only be a minute early. He was hoping to avoid another outside-the-classroom situation like he’d had the day before with Hyunjin, but to no avail. There both of them were.

 

Of course, Hyunjin must have been the ‘friend’ that Professor Shin pointedly asked Changbin about at the start of the last lesson.

 

They couldn’t be dressed more differently to Felix, who was wearing an oversized fuzzy pink sweater, white skinny jeans and pastel blue converse. Changbin was in all black and so was Hyunjin, sans the slight colour of a dark red woven bracelet that both wore on their left wrists. It was like that picture he’d seen on Instagram the other day of the brightly coloured home next to the House of Doom. Resolutely, he walked past them and stood a few feet away next to some random guy who he vaguely remembered as being in the tenor group last lesson and a bottle-blonde soprano girl who giggled at the sight of him. Not ten seconds later, however, he saw them hurriedly scurrying away out of the corner of his eye.

 

Had he done something?

 

He looked up, discovering both that he hadn’t and the real reason for them scarpering. Changbin and Hyunjin had walked over, and came to stand either side of him.

 

“Fancy seeing you here,” Changbin joked, and Felix forced a laugh, heart thundering in his poor chest.

 

“Didn’t know you were in this class too.” This, Felix directed at Hyunjin.

 

“Yep,” Hyunjin replied with a disarming smile. “I missed last lesson, sadly- didn’t know that you’d be in it until Binnie told me after.”

 

Why would Felix being there have made the slightest bit of difference as to whether Hyunjin showed up? He didn’t want to ask, so he stayed quiet.

 

Professor Shin turned up then, giving Felix a brief reprieve from his gay panic as he went into the classroom, followed by all of the students. Then, however, Felix remembered that he was sat next to Changbin. By the looks of it, the other empty desk was Hyunjin’s as he was walking over with the two of them.

 

Of course it was.

 

Warm-up could not go by fast enough, in his opinion; at the end, he could escape to his vocal group to practice the song. He spent the first ten minutes in mental anguish as Changbin and Hyunjin stood either side of him and _fuck_ their voices were gorgeous. They were gorgeous, literally everything about them was so attractive that it pained him.

 

Felix noticed that a couple of people in their class had started avoiding his gaze as well as they did with the two guys who had taken a strange interest in… befriending him? He didn’t really understand what they were up to. His classmates seemed to have begun to associate him with them, not nearly so eager to talk to him as they had been on his first day.

 

“Damn,” Hyunjin muttered when Felix started singing an octave below him for the first set of scales.

 

“Told you,” Changbin replied smugly. Seemingly he had told his boyfriend something about Felix’s voice that the other had failed to believe. He really shouldn’t read so much into them talking about him, but his head was whirring with possibilities. Perhaps they found his voice annoying? Changbin had probably complained about how bad it was, that must be it.

 

While they worked on the individual parts for the song cover, Felix heard a loud crash from the other side of the room. Looking over, he saw that Hyunjin had knocked over a large pile of music. He didn’t seem all too bothered about the mess he’d made, giving a half-assed apology when Professor Shin rushed over to aid in the clear up. Shin rolled his eyes at what was clearly his least favourite student, tied with Changbin.

 

Wait, where _was_ Changbin? He was in Hyunjin’s group and had definitely been there the last time Felix looked over longingly.

 

Oh, there he was, walking back from the front of the classroom holding something.

 

“Just had to borrow a pencil, sir,” he told the Professor, looking strangely innocent. What was he doing?

 

Professor Shin also looked suspicious, but couldn’t find any reason to question Changbin and so went back to his desk without comment once the music was cleared up.

 

“Alright everyone!” Shin spoke up from the front of the room. “As you know, this song was just a taster exercise as a class before splitting into smaller groups for the real project.”

 

No, Felix had _not_ known that. Maybe it had been mentioned in the two weeks at the start which he missed.

 

“So, after running through this one as a class a few times, so long as there’s no major errors to work on, I’ll put you into groups. We’ll have two groups of four and two groups of three; I just had my TA put everyone’s names in a random generator and pick them like that, so no complaining,” he warned.

 

Their cover of Pentatonix’s ‘Love Again’ went very smoothly, surprisingly. The sopranos had sounded like a bit of a shitshow the last lesson- evidently a fair amount of individual practice had occurred. Felix pretty much carried the basses through their part even though it wasn’t even as low as the original song. He couldn’t really blame them as the part was _very_ deep, but he hoped he wasn’t in either of their groups all the same. Ideally he’d be in a group with tenors and altos, as they sounded really good and weren’t Changbin or Hyunjin.

 

In the side of his peripheral vision, he saw them both look over at him several times. He didn’t look back, determined to stay unaffected. Given that it was randomly generated by the TA, someone who didn’t even know the class, he should be lucky enough to avoid them just this once.

 

One thing about Felix that he really should have learnt at this point was that when it came to luck, he had none.

 

Taejin, Somin and Bora were the first three called, followed by Wonhae, Chansung, Shinhye and Minyoung. That meant that left were another group of three and another of four. As every name was read out Felix had grown more and more anxious, so by this point he was shaking a little, foot tapping lightly against the floor in quick succession. Shin informed them that the next would be the last group of four.

 

“Kang Seojoon,” called out Shin. Seojoon seemed nice enough, Felix would be happy to be in a group with him. “Bae Yewon,” he announced next. Yewon had made a point of introducing herself to him, so Felix already liked her. Kyungsang came third, a stocky boy who’d been giving Felix furtive looks whenever he saw him. Still, a better groupmate option than the alternative. Then, sealing his fate, the last member of their group was read out. Haesook.

 

“That means,” Shin trailed off, looking back down at his smartpad. _No._ “That means that our last group will be Lee Yongbok, Seo Changbin and Hwang Hyunjin,” he sighed, muttering something about damn kids and ‘just his luck’ that his two most disliked were in a group together despite it being random choice. “Everyone please get into your groups. We only have ten minutes left but please start to at least vaguely choose a concept.”

 

This could _not_ be happening.

 

Yet it was, as the two boys who’d plagued his existence since arriving in Korea were walking over to him from across the classroom. There was no mistaking it now, the rest of the class were now looking slightly scared of Felix by association with his two drop-dead gorgeous classmates. Yewon, so friendly the other day, averted her gaze as Felix’s eyes roamed the room to avoid looking at Changbin and Hyunjin for as long as possible. In fact, nobody met his eyes save the two he really wished wouldn’t.

 

“Isn’t this a fun coincidence,” greeted Hyunjin, dropping into the seat next to Felix and slinging an arm loosely around his shoulders.

 

“Yeah, fancy that,” Felix sighed, giving in and just letting Hyunjin’s arm stay there. None of the class were doing anything work-related, opting instead to goggle at the trio less than subtly. “I seem to encounter a lot of coincidences where you two are concerned.”

 

“How fortunate,” Changbin remarked, quirking a grin that Felix’s heart couldn’t help but beat faster in response to. Felix felt, once again, that he was missing something, though wasn’t really sure he wanted to find out just what. Seconds later, he found himself jumping embarrassingly at the feeling of Changbin’s arm joining Hyunjin’s around his shoulders.

 

Not in any of Felix’s daydreams after seeing the two of them for the first time did he anticipate this kind of attention from them _both_. He’d give anything to just understand, to make sense of the weird dynamic he’d been thrown headfirst into with no warning.

 

“We’re not bothering you, are we Felix?” Hyunjin checked, though from the look on his face he knew exactly what he was doing.

 

 _Yes_ , Felix wanted to say. _Yes you are, and it’s driving me crazy_.

 

Instead...

 

“N-No, not at all,” he lied. He was a complete goner and he knew it.

 

The following ten minutes saw Changbin swipe Felix’s phone out of his hands and add Hyunjin and himself as contacts, sending a random keyboard smash to both of their numbers at once and thereby creating a group chat.

 

**Felix: jsahjs**

 

“For the project,” Hyunjin explained innocuously. “We have to pick a theme, after all.”

 

Felix wanted to vault himself out of the chair as soon as Shin told the room at large that _that would be all for today_ , but to do so would be to remove both arms from around his shoulders and he didn’t really want to. Well, he did. They felt so nice though, both clearly hiding muscles beneath their jackets. He nearly pouted as they withdrew them.

 

Once they had, the intoxicating feeling of being so close to them wore off and anxiety flooded back through his senses. “I’ll s-see you later,” he garbled, tripping over a chair and nearly faceplanting as he hurried from the classroom.

 

Later, Chan’s eyes widened more and more by the second as Felix described the hell of a day he’d just had. “You’re telling me that Seo Changbin and Hwang Hyunjin not only willingly talked to you multiple times, but initiated skinship? Felix, what the fuck,” he swore, mouth dropping. “What is it about you, lil bro? Do you have a sign I can’t see that reads ‘Only Weirdos Need Apply’ or something?”

 

“And then I fell over a chair trying to get the hell away as fast as I could,” Felix finished recounting.

 

“Only you, Felix. Only you,” Chan sighed fondly. “If it were either one of them on their own, I’d assume they were trying to get with you, but they’re already a couple… Fuck knows what’s up with them.”

 

Minho had been sleeping on the couch, though apparently not that deeply given that, at this, he spoke up. “Channie, don’t be so close-minded. Polyamory exists, you know.”

 

“What, that thing where guys have like ten wives?” Felix asked, confused. What was the relevance to his situation?

 

“No, dumbass, that’s _polygamy_. What I’m talking about is that relationships with only one partner doesn’t always have to be the case- my friend Minji has two girlfriends,” Minho elaborated.

 

“Yikes, wouldn’t wanna be there when they find out about that,” Chan grimaced.

 

“No!” Minho looked exasperated with the both of them. “All three of them are dating each other.”

 

“What on… How does that even work?” Felix questioned, genuinely curious. His household had been beyond sheltered and Chan had grown up much the same as far as he knew.

 

“Just the same as a two person relationship, only there’s three of them,” he said slowly, as if trying to teach 1+1 to a very slow primary schooler. Although, 2+1 would probably be a better analogy. Or 1+1+1.

 

“Felix, you’re zoning out again, bro.”

 

He snapped out of it. “Sorry.”

 

So people were really out there dating two people? Felix allowed himself one long wistful moment before he determinedly shut down that train of thought. _They’re just messing with you_ , he reminded himself resolutely. At most, they saw potential for friendship. He’d take what he could get.

 

His phone buzzed against his thigh.

 

**Hyunjin: hey lix!! any thoughts on the project yet?**

 

He took a second to compose himself, well aware of both Chan and Minho’s hawklike stares.

 

**Felix: not yet ;; how about you guys?**

 

“Felix…” Minho’s tone was accusatory, which was rude but deserved nonetheless, he had to admit.

 

“What…”

 

“I know that longing look- which boy wonder just messaged you?”

 

“Hyunjin,” Felix admitted, not even bothering to rebut the ‘longing look’ statement. “We’re just talking about the project, don’t worry.”

 

**Changbin: do u just sing cause jinnie and i can rap as well**

 

**Changbin: i’d say i’m better at rapping personally ^^**

 

**Hyunjin: i like both!!**

 

Of course. Of fucking course they were rappers.

 

“You look like you were just offered a crate of gold bars and then someone threw them off a cliff right in front of you,” Minho remarked sagely.

 

“They’re rappers. I’ve _always_ had a thing for rappers, why are they rappers?” he complained, the contrast of his deep voice and whiny tone quite the combination.

 

“Because life seems to have it in for you, dear cousin,” Chan replied as he moved Minho’s legs off his lap so he could stand up, walking towards the kitchen area. “Gonna go cook, shout me if anything major happens.”

 

**Felix: i actually rap too..**

 

**Changbin: hjkdajk**

 

**Felix: what**

 

**Changbin: just dropped my phne sorry haha**

 

**Changbin: that’s cool!**

 

**Hyunjin: so def doing a song with rap in? :)**

 

**Changbin: will have to have a bit of singing in or our favourite professor shin will get antsy**

 

A couple of ideas came to Felix for song choices but he was too scared to mention any of them until other suggestions had been made.

 

**Hyunjin: i can’t think of anything gooooddd ;;; only like a couple songs but like something feels off with them**

 

Felix forced himself out of his comfort zone and texted back.

 

**Felix: do you know nct**

 

**Hyunjin: oh he’s not just a pretty face he’s one with TASTE! what u thinking**

 

**Felix: uh how about cherry bomb or firetruck by 127?? or yestoday by U**

 

They didn’t reply for over five minutes. Felix’s blush from being called pretty by Hyunjin wore away as he grew more and more worried that he’d done something wrong. For once, however, he needn’t have stressed over it.

 

**Changbin: jinnie and i just relistened to them all sorry for vanishing lmao**

 

**Changbin: we like yestoday best if ur good with that?**

 

**Felix: yesss i love that one!!**

 

He felt _elated_ that they had chosen one of his song choices, smiling widely as they exchanged a couple more texts about meeting up to divvy up the parts between them. It only really sunk in that he would actually have to do so about ten minutes later, when the conversation had lulled and he’d put his phone down. He’d agreed to go around Hyunjin’s room, picked because he didn’t have a roommate, and be there _alone_ with both of them. Felix hated to think which new ways he’d manage to horrendously embarrass himself.

 

Chan called him and Minho through- their luxurious evening meal of ramen noodles with added vegetables was ready. “Babe can you grab the chopsticks and water jug?” he asked Minho. “Lix and I will bring everyone’s food through.”

 

Minho did as asked and the two cousins followed him through, Felix only carrying his own bowl and Chan both his and Minho’s. The three of them sat at the small table in the living room, chatting in between practically inhaling their food. All of them were prone to forgetting to eat until late, making them a trio ineffective at keeping to regular meal times. That evening was no exception. If Minho’s stomach hadn’t rumbled loudly and reminded them, they would no doubt have eaten even later.

 

Chan was composing a song for Minho’s end of term dance showcase, so the two of them sat discussing that. Felix chimed in every now and then but was mostly content to just sit back and listen, glad that they weren’t focused on him for once. When his phone buzzed in his pocket once more, the two of them looked at him very suspiciously as he immediately excused himself from the table. He feigned a yawn, glancing pointedly at his watch and pretending to be surprised that it was already 11pm despite already being well aware.

 

“That’s me done for the evening,” he declared, yawning once more for good measure. “It’s been a long day.”

 

Chan and Minho both wished him goodnight in turn, though Chan wouldn’t let him leave until he’d washed up his bowl and utensils. When at last he escaped to his room, he saw four new messages waiting on his homescreen.

 

**Changbin: gonna try and sleep now so mssg u in the morning**

 

**Hyunjin: sleep well babe i’m gonna try n catch some zs as well <3**

 

Reading these, he figured they’d mistaken the group chat for their private message thread until he read the other two texts.

 

**Changbin: night felix!!!! :)**

 

**Hyunjin: gnight see u tomorrow lixie <3**

 

Looking down at his phone another message popped up.

 

**Changbin: sending hearts to other boys now babe?**

**Changbin: </3**

 

Felix’s heart near thundered out of his chest with how fast it was suddenly pounding.

 

**Hyunjin: can u blame me**

 

**Changbin: … ur right i really cant,, i suppose i can make an exception but only for him ;;**

 

 **Hyunjin:** **(＾－＾)**

 

**Changbin: goodnight jinnie <3**

 

**Changbin: n goodnight felix <33**

 

Just minutes ago, Felix had feigned being on the verge of passing out from exhaustion in front of Chan and Minho. Despite this, he knew well and good that he wouldn’t be getting much sleep that night.

 

 **Felix: goodnight both of u!!** **(︶｡︶✽)**

 

**Hyunjin: ,,cute**

 

**Hyunjin: ok goodnight for real <3**

 

Felix was utterly done for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hey!!! thank you all so much for the response to this :') all the comments you've left have been so motivating and definitely made me write faster <3 i hope you enjoy this update, pls lmk what you think in the comments and/or via my twitter (@spearachas)


	3. part three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mood had definitely changed. It had deepened and become heavier, something tangible in the air that was weighing down at Felix’s very being.

**_Changbin: sending hearts to other boys now babe?_ **

 

**_Changbin: </3_ **

 

**_Hyunjin: can u blame me_ **

 

**_Changbin: … ur right i really cant,, i suppose i can make an exception but only for him ;;_ **

 

**_Hyunjin: (＾－＾)_ **

 

**_Changbin: goodnight jinnie <3_ **

 

**_Changbin: n goodnight felix <33_ **

 

**_Felix: goodnight both of u!!  (︶｡︶✽)_ **

 

**_Hyunjin: ,,cute_ **

 

**_Hyunjin: ok goodnight for real <3_ **

 

\--

 

Felix, after laying awake for over two hours staring at his ceiling, had finally managed to drop off at around half past one. Given that he had to wake up at 6:30 the following morning to make it to his 8am history class, it was sufficient to say that he was _not_ well rested when he dragged himself out of bed. Blearily, Felix trudged into the bathroom and showered quickly, washed his face and made an attempt to do something with his hair that failed. He decided to just let it lie flat, the burnt orange gingerish sort of colour falling slightly over his eyes. His mother had been furious when he’d dyed it without asking her first, as if there was a chance in hell she would ever have let him.

 

When she’d threatened to kick him out of the house, he knew she hadn’t been serious and laughed, only making her angrier. He knew she’d have real reason to actually do so soon enough- he'd begun the preparations for his move in secret. The university approved the transfer and he made sure that neither of his parents saw anything about it until it was set in stone.

 

A boy at Felix’s university had fancied himself in love with him.

 

Someone truly in love would not have done as he did. Would not have turned nasty when Felix turned him down and threatened to tell Felix’s parents if he didn’t date him. Would not have revealed the stalkerish pictures he’d taken when Felix had gone in secret to pride a few months prior and said he’d print them out and send them to Felix’s home.

 

Of course, Felix wouldn’t bow to that. Not in a million years. He’d planned on telling his parents once he’d graduated, simply so that he wouldn’t have to pay for things while at uni. In moving to Seoul, he’d managed to bluff his way into saying that tuition needed to be paid up front in a lump sum, and as his mother had fallen out of practicing Korean for decades he was able to show her a page of Hangul and pretend that it was backing up his claims. It had been ingenious, now that he really thought about it. As they couldn’t rescind their payment, the rest of his uni fees were paid for and he didn’t even need to worry about accommodation as he had Chan.

 

The morning of the move, he had told them. He’d waited until they’d driven him to the airport, not wanting to pay for a taxi on top of what he knew well and good was to come. When it came to his father, he knew he’d be faced with rage. That he could deal with. It was the despair from his mother, the tears and the promises that she’d pray for him that really cut deep. With that approach to his ‘problem’, she could almost seem like she still loved him.

 

He’d hugged them before he said the words out loud, doubting he would ever get to again. Once they knew, he turned his back on their horrified, disgusted faces and walked away, head held high. The tears broke through his dam of determination only after he turned the corner.

 

“-lix, Felix? Felix are you okay?!” Chan’s voice faded in as the memories faded out. Dimly, he realised he’d slid down to the floor with his back against the wall, toothbrush clenched tight in his hand and arms wrapped around his knees.

 

“Chan?”

 

His voice came out feeble. At that Chan opened the door, face falling as he took in the sight of his little cousin looking so defeated, so small.

 

“Oh Felix…” he sighed. “Can I hug you?” Felix nodded and Chan crouched down, gathering him into his arms. “We don’t have to talk about it right now, not for months or for years if you don’t want to, but,” he paused for a second, wiping tears from Felix’s cheeks that he hadn’t even realised had begun to fall. “I’m guessing this is about your parents?”

 

Felix hiccuped, nodding ever so slightly. “I can’t ever go back there, Channie,” he told him weakly, shivering a little.

 

“You don’t have to, ‘Lix. Your home is here with me, for as long as you want it to be.”

 

“Promise?”

 

“Promise,” Chan replied earnestly, linking their pinky fingers together to seal the deal. “Let’s get you up off this floor.”

 

Felix let himself be pulled up. “I didn’t realise I’d spaced out like that,” he admitted. “I’m gonna go get dressed.”

 

Chan didn’t pry, didn’t push him to say more than he was ready to. He just stepped aside to give him room to leave the bathroom. Felix loved that about his cousin and always had- Chan was so incredibly safe, exuding warmth and comfort and just everything that was good.

 

His phone buzzed where he’d left it on his desk as he got dressed. 

 

**Hyunjin: good morning gays!**

 

**Hyunjin: gay* haha sorry that was just for binnie ^^**

 

**Felix: lmao u can greet me too dw**

 

**Hyunjin: u mean?,,**

 

**Hyunjin: :o**

 

**Felix: i’m as gay as they come, yes**

 

**Changbin: n i c e**

 

What on earth was _that_ supposed to mean? Felix supposed Changbin was just happy he wouldn’t judge their relationship.

 

**Hyunjin: in that case**

 

**Hyunjin: good morning gays!**

 

**Changbin: good morning jinnie**

 

**Felix: good morning!!**

 

**Hyunjin: i’m so glad ur one of the cool kids lixieeee**

 

**Felix: u should see my cousin and his friends**

 

**Felix: if gay is your def of cool it can’t get much cooler than my lunch table**

 

**Changbin: chan?**

 

**Felix: he isn’t exactly subtle w/ minho, but i suppose ur not around during lunch so u wouldn’t have seen**

 

**Hyunjin: lee minho? didn’t know he’d settled down good for him**

 

**Felix: oui**

 

**Changbin: oh look he knows french multilingual king**

 

**Felix: non**

 

**Changbin: :(**

 

**Hyunjin: he’s already fluent in english baby**

 

**Changbin: o u right**

 

**Changbin: :)**

 

**Felix: gotta go eat n get coffee or i absolutely will pass out in class**

 

**Hyunjin: see u in dance!!**

 

**Changbin: no fair**

 

**Hyunjin: learn to dance then**

 

Felix couldn’t help but laugh at their antics as he walked into the kitchen where a still worried-looking Chan was just pouring their coffee, absentmindedly chewing on a mouthful of toast. “What’s got you smiling?” he asked, seeming relieved that Felix no longer looked like he was on the verge of an emotional breakdown.

 

“Oh nothing, just a funny thing on Instagram,” he lied. “I’m feeling all better now, don’t worry. Can you put some toast on for me please?”

 

Chan did as asked and Felix wolfed it down like a man starved. Ten minutes later, coffee consumed and booting up their senses, they set off. On the bus, a little girl latched herself onto Felix’s leg and wouldn’t let go ‘because he was so pretty’. Felix brushed off the apologies of her mother and let the small child cling to him until he had to get off at their uni’s stop, waving to her through the window until the bus pulled away.

 

“What is it with you?” Chan mused. “Everyone can’t help but love you, it’s like a superpower, I swear…”

 

“You heard the girl!” Felix laughed, throwing his head back and giggling. “I’m just pretty, they can’t resist.”

 

“Sure, something like that…”

 

“Oi!” Felix protested, smacking his older cousin in the arm. Chan just linked their arms and walked through the front door attached to his side. “Let go of me, I can’t believe you don’t think I’m pretty,” he pouted, dramatically widening his eyes.

 

“Who doesn’t think you’re pretty, Felix?” a voice popped up behind them, revealing themself as Minho as he latched onto Chan’s other arm.

 

“Your sorry excuse for a boyfriend,” Felix lamented. At this, Minho gasped and detached himself from Chan, moving instead to Felix’s side.

 

“What’s a Chan?” he asked, turning up his nose. “I only know Lee Felix.”

 

“Valid,” Chan admitted. Felix pouted again. “Fine! Yes, you’re pretty Felix. Fuck’s sake.”

 

Felix grinned widely. “Thank you Channie, wish I could say the same for you,” he replied, running off before he could respond. In the distance, he could hear his cousin making a fuss and he laughed, walking to class with a spring in his step.

 

History came and went, boring as ever. He enjoyed some topics, but the one he was having inflicted on him that term was not interesting in the _slightest_. The fact that he had class with Hyunjin next definitely didn’t help with his utter lack of concentration.

 

Despite his ever-present gay panic around either of his crushes, Felix managed not to make a fool out of himself to any great extent when he saw Hyunjin waiting outside the dance studio. Fixed on his face was the default scowl that him and Changbin seemed to revert to when they were around anyone asides from Felix or each other. A couple of others from their class were already there as well, but they’d stayed a considerable distance away from the intimidating boy. Regardless, he walked over and stood by his side, tapping him on the shoulder. He hadn’t noticed Felix’s arrival, so deeply engrossed was he by whatever he was listening to.

 

“What-” he started to snap, face completely transforming once he saw who exactly had disturbed him. “Oh, hello Lix!”

 

Across the hall, Wonhae from the bass section in music -also a dancer, it seemed, not that Felix had noticed him in the class- gave him a weird, disgusted sort of look. Felix met his eyes, staring defiantly until the other broke eye contact.

 

“Hey Hyunjin, you alright?” he greeted his… classmate? friend? He wasn’t exactly sure which definition he should fall into other than the obvious label of ‘gay-panic-inducer’.

 

“Yeah, just listening to Binnie’s new song that he made for us to dance to,” he told him with a wide smile.

 

They were going to be dancing to something that _Changbin_ had made?

 

Fucking fuckity fuck.

 

Clearly Felix was destined not to survive this semester.

 

“Do you want to listen?”

 

_No. Absolutely not._

 

“I’d love to!”

 

Damnit, Felix.

 

Hyunjin held out one earbud and leaned in close so that they could both share them. Felix could see each of Hyunjin’s eyelashes, that’s how close they were. Not that he was looking at them, nor how long and pretty they were, nor the cute beauty mark underneath his eye.

 

Just as Hyunjin went to press play on his phone, their instructor showed up and Felix was momentarily saved. After the torture that was warming up with the other boy, the instructor, whose name still escaped Felix whenever he tried to remember, announced that the signup sheet for the smaller practice rooms was up. He recommended that each of them sign up for at least two hours per week, if not more.

 

Hyunjin signed them up for four.

 

A few practice rooms were free that lesson, not enough for the class but enough for a few pairs to escape the main room. Predictably nobody seemed brave enough to challenge Hyunjin’s request for one and so he and Felix headed off to Practice Room 4 alone. Not that Felix was overthinking being alone with Hyunjin or anything, not in the slightest.

 

Once the door to the smaller practice room was closed behind them, Hyunjin flicked on the light and headed purposefully over to a set of speakers sat on the windowsill, plugging in his phone. “I’ll just show you what I have so far fitted to the music and then we can adapt that part as a duet and work from there- sound good?” he asked, looking at Felix expectantly.

 

“Y-Yeah,” Felix replied, cursing at himself internally when the word came out as a stutter. He’d been doing so well! Hyunjin just looked so pretty illuminated by the sunlight streaming through the little window he was stood by.

 

“Alright here goes nothing then,” Hyunjin laughed wryly. He pressed play and walked to the centre of the room, Felix stepping back and leaning against the door to give him space.

 

The music faded in, soft electronic sounds accompanied by the echo of distant voices and the tapping of a cymbal. Felix waited, breath caught in his throat.

 

All of a sudden, something heavy _dropped_ into the beat and Hyunjin began to dance in sharp, staccato sort of movements. Felix only had all of eight seconds to adjust to the sight before another sound joined the mix. Someone, and that someone was unmistakably Changbin, began to rap.

 

Felix simultaneously lost all ability to coherently focus whilst at the same time having never focused more intently, both on Hyunjin’s movements and the beautifully grating tone of Changbin’s voice as he rapped. Hyunjin stopped about a minute in, having reached the end of what was already choreographed, so they both stood there and just listened to the rest of the song in awe.

 

Once it had faded out into silence, Hyunjin looked to Felix for feedback, laughing softly at the sight of his mouth having fallen slightly open in awe. He stayed frozen in place as Hyunjin walked over and stood far too close, tilting his head in amusement. “Liiixie, what did you think?”

 

“I um. Words. Those are, uh, a thing?” Felix replied. _In English._ “Wait shit,” he added, now in Korean. “Sorry, I just forgot which language to use.” At this, Hyunjin laughed prettily, not helping Felix’s predicament in the slightest. “You were incredible, _he_ was incredible. How are you both so, uh, that?” he rambled without any ability to control his mouth.

 

“Binnie will be so glad to know you liked his song,” Hyunjin beamed. “I’m happy my dance was alright too, it seems?”

 

“Alright is an insult to how amazing you were, Jinnie,” Felix sighed, wishing he didn’t sound so damn in awe of the other boy all the time.

 

_Wait a second, did he just-_

 

“Shit sorry didn’t mean to call you that I just hear Changbin use it all the time and I guess it’s just in my head and-”

 

“Don’t worry, I like it,” Hyunjin cut him off, grabbing Felix’s hand and pulling him to the centre of the practice room. “I love it from Binnie and it sounds just as cute from you.”

 

_Cute._

 

Felix was going to implode right there and then, he really was.

 

“Uh-” he replied intelligently, tongue feeling too heavy in his mouth and heart too big to be beating so hard against his chest. Trying to speak again, he failed and only managed to enunciate something along the lines of “Hhhhgh.”

 

“You’re adorable, you know that?” the other boy cooed.

 

Again, not _remotely_ helping.

 

“Okay then, let’s do this,” Hyunjin continued. “Watch me and try and sort of mirror the first few bars, then we can split up into contrasting parts when Changbin comes in with his rap,” he instructed, snapping into practice mode but still clearly amused by Felix’s inability to form basic sentences.

 

They spent the rest of the session working on fitting a part for Felix into the already choreographed section, agreeing to start on the rest of the song as a pair the next session. For all the incoherent stammering that was inevitable throughout, Felix still managed to contribute a great amount to his side of the dance. It was his speciality, after all, and for most of it he didn’t need to be speaking that much anyway.

 

For once, Felix’s schedule let him catch a break and he didn’t have anything with either of his boys immediately after dance. Regardless, Hyunjin walked him to his science class despite Felix’s protests that it really wasn’t necessary. He consequently had a whole new group of people staring at him in slightly wary confusion. Nearly all his classmates had seen him arrive to the lesson with Hwang Hyunjin in tow- at least nobody decided to quiz him about it this time.

 

Next came lunch. Hyunjin and Changbin didn’t make a surprise appearance that day. He supposed they were off eating together like they must have until the day before. Jeongin asked Felix to call him I.N, a request he politely declined as the rest of the table furiously shook their heads behind the youngest’s back. He remembered Chan warning him before about Jeongin’s tendency towards strange nicknames, so they needn’t have worried about him falling for it.

 

Jisung spent half of lunch complaining about some idiots in his and Seungmin’s classes who’d been making homophobic comments, though turning down Woojin, Minho and Chan’s joint offer to go and shake some sense into them.

 

“Maybe Felix can ask his two pet thugs to go do the dirty work,” Jeongin joked, earning a glare from Felix which assured that he wouldn’t make such a comment again.

 

“They are _not_ my pet thugs, nor are they ‘thugs’ at all!” he snapped, feeling only a little bad as he suitably wiped the smile from Jeongin’s cute face.

 

“Whoah, touchy much?” Minho laughed. “Innie was just joking.”

 

“They’re really not, though…” Felix trailed off, thinking about what he knew of the two boys in contrast to everything he’d heard about them via rumours abound about the university. “They’ve only ever been sweet to me.”

 

“Not over those crushes, are we ‘Lix?” Woojin sighed, seeming out of energy to fight Felix’s bad decisions. Felix felt much the same, to be honest. “Hopefully you manage to get past this on your own as our efforts seem for naught,” he laughed, his words ringing all too true despite the joking tone.

 

It just didn’t add up, Felix pondered. Everyone in the school was terrified of Changbin and Hyunjin, yet it was them who had been pursuing Felix’s friendship. They’d apparently beaten someone to a pulp a year ago, but they were cute and sweet and giggly and not at all the sort of people that would do such a thing. They glared at everything that moved but had already opened their hearts to Felix, a complete stranger.

 

He just had a free period after lunch, so would have gone home were it not for the fact that he was going over to Hyunjin’s afterward. Instead, he accompanied Woojin to the library and made a start on his History essay. Whatever the hell the Battle of Hastings had been, it was boring him to tears.

 

Woojin’s work looked far more interesting, headphones in and pencil in hand dancing across sheets upon sheets of manuscript paper arranging a piece for the two first years he was tutoring for vocal studies.

 

Near the end of the session, Felix earned himself a pointed look from the librarian when his phone vibrated loudly against the wooden table. He missed the soft, half thoughtful and half worried look that Woojin gave him when the older boy observed Felix’s entire face light up at the sight of a text from Changbin.

 

**Changbin: hey hey!! jinnie already went back to his place cause he was done for the day after dance. where u @ i’ll come grab u so we can walk over together**

 

**Felix: i’m at the library!! ^^**

 

**Changbin: omw :)**

 

**Felix: ( ´ ▽ ` )**

 

Felix started when he looked up and saw Woojin watching him. _It’s nothing,_ he mouthed, wary of upsetting the old librarian again lest he get kicked out or even banned. _Sure_ , Woojin mouthed back, looking less than convinced.

 

He looked even less convinced when Seo Changbin arrived and tugged a wildly blushing Felix away by the sleeve of his jumper. Felix didn’t even bother to try and explain himself at that point, simply shrugging at his friend and letting himself be pulled off.

 

“So does Ji-Hyunjin live far from here?” he asked Changbin once they were in an area where speaking wouldn’t warrant the wrath of a seventy year old woman with a bone to pick with students.

 

“He wasn’t lying! Oh my god, he’s so gonna lord this over me,” Changbin exclaimed, groaning.

 

“Who wasn’t lying about what?” Felix queried, very confused by the other boy’s outburst.

 

“Hyunjin told me that you called him Jinnie during dance practice and I thought he was having me on. But, well, clearly he wasn’t,” Changbin explained. For all he was complaining about being proved wrong, the smile on his face told another story about his true feelings on the matter. “That’s so fucking adorable,” he mumbled to himself, so quiet Felix could barely hear him. He wondered if Changbin even realised he’d said it out loud.

 

“I’m… sorry?” Felix replied, really not sure how to respond to Changbin’s admission.

 

“No no no don’t be sorry, angel. It’s so cute that you called him that,” Changbin hurried to reassure him. “Feel free to call him that all the time if you want to, I’m sure he’d love that.”

 

Now Felix _really_ didn’t know how to respond.

 

Angel? _Angel??_

 

Wracking his brain, he decided to change the subject rather than go further down the spiral that was the topic of cute nicknames.

 

“I loved your song for the dance.”

 

“I’m glad to hear! I was hoping to impress you,” Changbin admitted. He was still holding onto Felix’s sleeve, his black ripped hoodie looking out of place next to Felix’s fuzzy baby-blue sweater. Felix loved the sight just the same.

 

“Well you certainly did, uh, that,” Felix said intelligently. They turned a corner onto a long corridor of dorm rooms. “Which number is Hyunjinnie?” he asked, looking down at the floor. He’d deliberately meant to not use the nickname due to his earlier embarrassment, but had somehow fucked up and used it anyway.

 

“Just this next one, 131,” Changbin pointed out, stopping in front of the aforementioned dorm room and rapping his knuckles on the door.

 

Within seconds, the door had been enthusiastically flung open. “Baby! I missed you!” Hyunjin exclaimed, letting out a huff of air as Changbin knocked it out of him by leaping on him. “Hey Lixie,” he wheezed once he’d managed to regain a little breath. “Welcome to my humble abode.”

 

“Thank you,” Felix laughed awkwardly, fiddling with the sleeves of his sweater. “Should I dump my stuff anywhere?”

 

“Just on the spare bed,” Hyunjin gestured across the room to a bed that was clearly less lived in than his own, mattress bare. Still with Changbin’s arms circling his waist, he moved over to his own bed and the two of them sat down cross legged, Changbin detaching himself but immediately linking their hands together.

 

Felix shuffled on the spot, not sure how to proceed. Noticing a chair at Hyunjin’s desk, he went to drag it over so he could sit by the bed.

 

“Felix honey what are you doing?” Hyunjin asked, pouting. Why was he pouting?

 

“Just getting a chair?” Felix clarified. “Is there something wrong with this chair?”

 

“Yes there is,” Changbin answered.

 

“What?”

 

“You should just come sit with us, why would you want to be the only one on a chair?” Hyunjin questioned cutely, making grabby hands in Felix’s direction. Felix shuffled towards them slowly, face burning up, and allowed himself to be pulled down to sit between them. The two of them had gone back to holding hands, so their arms were pretty much around him, linking behind his back. He should have felt like the biggest third wheel in the world, and in a way he still did, but…

 

Somehow he also felt like he was being included. If he thought too hard about that, however, his head was liable to explode.

 

“Let’s chop up this song then!” Hyunjin said excitedly, giving Felix some breathing room for a second. He let go of Changbin to grab his laptop and press play on ‘Yestoday’, which was already pulled up on YouTube. “Any ideas on splitting the parts?”

 

“I like Taeyong’s parts, personally,” Changbin spoke up.

 

Felix imagined his voice, the voice he’d heard on the track for dance, doing _Taeyong’s lines_. Holy hell was he in danger.

 

“How about you, Lixie?” Hyunjin asked him, putting his arm around Felix’s shoulder in lieu of holding Changbin’s hand again.

 

Holding in the strangled noise his throat so desperately wanted to let out, Felix instead replied “I think Lucas’ voice would fit best with mine.”

 

“Perfect, I wanted Mark’s anyway!” Hyunjin exclaimed happily, his bright smile doing far too many things to Felix’s poor heart. If Hyunjin asked him to kill a man while smiling at him like that, Felix reckoned he would probably just have to do it.

 

“And we’ll just all do the chorus in turns? Maybe on the last one we could add a bunch of harmonies and shit to really wow Shin,” Changbin suggested. “It’ll blow his mind if we put more than the bare minimum in.”

 

“Why does Professor Shin dislike you so much- scratch that, why does everyone?” Felix asked without thinking. His brain-to-mouth filter was most definitely broken, it seemed. The words _I’m sorry_ followed soon after, along with _I didn’t mean to ask that,_ Felix cursing himself for being too nosy. They’d definitely hate him now- how they already didn’t was beyond his capacity for thought.

 

The mood had definitely changed. It had deepened and become heavier, something tangible in the air that was weighing down at Felix’s very being. Did they hate him? Perhaps he was about to be thrown from the room, never to talk to them again.

 

Instead of pushing him away, however, they drew him closer. Hyunjin’s arm around his shoulders tightened, and Changbin’s hand slipped into his, grounding him.  _ Changbin was holding his hand. _

 

Why was Changbin holding his hand?

 

Felix’s brain was all too good at explaining away everything that either of these two did around him. Here, however, it was drawing a blank as Changbin’s thumb drew small circles on the back of his hand. He couldn’t help but allow the small spark of hope to take light within his chest, a dull ache in his heart as it constricted with each seemingly insignificant moment. Each little thing along with the next and the next had snowballed into a mass of fleeting instances. When combined, these had transformed into something of quite some significance.

 

“I suppose this conversation has been building up for a while now," Changbin sighed. "It's a lot to explain if you want to hear it _all-_ we could be here a while."

 

“I can listen.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part three here she be!!!! tysm for 200 kudos :') keep em coming i'm nothing if not weak for praise
> 
> hmu on twitter (tysm ppl who have already!! i love you!!)
> 
> as ever pls comment and let me know what u think!!! i love comments sm i get an email from ao3 every time someone does and it makes me go :D


	4. part four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Would he ever understand what was going on between them?

_“I suppose this conversation has been building up for a while now," Changbin sighed. "It's a lot to explain if you want to hear it all— we could be here a while."_

 

_“I can listen.”_

 

\------

 

Felix didn’t pressure either of them, knowing all too well how it felt to be forced to spill out secrets. Instead, he simply sat back and —as promised— listened. Changbin and Hyunjin’s eyes met, a silent conversation flashing between them in an instant. Somehow, they came to a consensus, and Changbin was the one to begin their tale.

 

“We met in high school, Hyunjin and I. He was the popular pretty boy and I was the weird new guy who turned up a month into the first semester and sat in the corner working on music alone. Somehow, by a stroke of miracle, he noticed me nonetheless,” he started, Hyunjin smiling fondly despite the nervousness that permeated the air between the couple. “We kept it secret for a while. Neither of us wanted the scandal of the Pastor’s son hooking up with the outcast, after all.”

 

“I was ready to tell the world from day one, but Binnie here didn’t want to ‘ruin me’. As if he wasn’t worth anything I could face,” Hyunjin corrected softly, rolling his eyes. “It had to come out eventually, though, and come out it did…”

 

“In the most spectacular way,” Changbin continued, a haunted look flashing across his face. “One of the members of Jinnie’s little fanclub saw us kissing behind the bleachers; we didn’t even notice that she was there. She took a photo and it spread like wildfire, Hyunjin got kicked out of his house and had to come live with me. Luckily my mother doesn’t care about ‘what I do in my spare time’, as she so puts it.”

 

Felix wanted to say something, _anything,_ that would make them feel better. He could tell how much the events had affected Hyunjin in particular despite the brave face he was putting on. One hand occupied by Changbin still, Felix pushed past his nerves and pulled at Hyunjin’s wrist so that his hand turned over and Felix could link his fingers with his own. His heart felt like it could give way any second. Nonetheless, Felix couldn’t bring himself to regret his actions as Hyunjin smiled radiantly.

 

He liked them both so much it hurt.

 

“All of my so-called friends left me in the dust the second they found out I wasn’t the perfect straight boy that my father had tried to raise,” Hyunjin elaborated. “People who’d been falling over themselves trying to be by my side in the hallways were suddenly standing to the side yelling slurs as Changbin and I walked by. Everything can change in an instant.”

 

“I know,” said Felix, his tone belying just how personal such a topic was to him. They both turned to look at him, not with the pity he was expecting but with understanding devoid of judgment.

 

“I figured Australia would have been more tolerant than Korea,” Changbin admitted.

 

“As a country itself it’s admittedly further ahead. My family, however? Not so much,” Felix replied.

 

“Oh Lixie, I’m sorry baby,” Hyunjin said, hand tightening around Felix’s.

 

“Don’t worry about me right now,” he reassured them. “I can tell you everything later— please carry on if you’re okay with that.”

 

“Okay, sweet boy. We can stop at any time though, just give us the word,” Hyunjin promised. Once Felix had nodded his understanding, he went on. “Alright, so fast forward a year of torment at high school and Binnie and I are both accepted to this university. We could have re-closeted ourselves, so to speak. After a year of being open despite the adversity that came with, though, we couldn’t face pretending we were ‘just friends’.”

 

“We hoped university would be better,” Changbin took over. “In many ways it was, at first. We certainly weren’t the only same-sex couple on the scene and there’s a lot of ‘experimentation’ culture at uni that gives people breathing room. All was well for a few weeks until we got tipsy and made out with some guy at a party.”

 

“W-wait,” Felix couldn’t help but interrupt. “You said _‘we’;_ so _both_ of you made out with the same guy? Was this at separate times, or?...”

 

“No, it was both of us plus him in someone’s bathroom, all a little past our limits but sober enough that we knew what we were doing,” clarified Hyunjin. Felix’s mind began to go into overdrive at the thought of them both being with someone, imagining them both being with _him._ “He was way more sober than us, actually, but that didn’t stop him acting like we were demons who’d seduced his innocent ‘straight’ self. His brother came and sought us out the next day. He cornered us behind the uni and went so far as to pull a knife on us, not knowing that we’ve both taken various self-defense classes— I started as soon as I could walk. Binnie never took formal ones until we started doing them together, but he can more than take care of himself from past experience.”

 

Hyunjin didn’t elaborate on what ‘past experience’ was, so Felix rightly assumed that it was a conversation for another day.

 

“Long story short,” Changbin concluded, “We didn’t break any bones but we made sure he couldn’t get up to chase us when we left. Obviously, the University wasn’t best pleased. They tried to expel us along with that douche, even though he was the one carrying around a knife. They quickly changed their tune when we threatened to expose the university for allowing homophobic discrimination, however.”

 

Hyunjin laughed at the memory. “Still got suspended for a bit, but overall we didn’t get off too roughly from it. Cause the prick got expelled and his brother transferred immediately, we were the only ones who knew anything about the whole story other than the principal and he’s sworn to secrecy legally. You know how the rumour mill spins when left uncorrected, so we just let people assume that we were drug lords or mafia hitmen or whatever they cooked up. Since then, we haven’t been bothered by a soul.”

 

“You haven’t made friends with _anyone_ since? Nobody at all?” Felix marvelled. “Isn’t that lonely?”

 

“It was just like our last year of school, except this time with everyone leaving us alone,” Changbin reasoned. Felix supposed that, yes, that was true. “Sure we get a little lonely at times, but we have each other without the constant torment of people who think we’re lesser for our love.”

 

“Plus, we _have_ made friends with someone now,” Hyunjin added with another of his heart-stoppingly radiant smiles. _“You.”_

 

Felix couldn’t understand why he, of any people, would be any exception to their self-imposed solitude. When he voiced as much, they both looked at him as if he had said the most ridiculous thing in the world.

 

“Oh, I don’t know…” Changbin trailed off, voice heavily tinged with sarcasm. “It’s not like you’re the nicest person we’ve ever met, or anything.”

 

“Or like you’re the only person who’s ever not judged us despite the rumours and still made conversation,” Hyunjin continued, smiling at Felix all the while. “Plus, you’re the prettiest person either of us have seen in our whole lives, so that helped.”

 

_Was it just his imagination, or did Hyunjin’s eyes keep flicking down to his lips?_

 

“W-What?” Felix stammered, suddenly as nervous as he had been the first time he met either of them. They’d told him several things, but one in particular was making him lose all abilities of speech or thought. “But I’m- I mean, but _you_ \- you’re both so-”

 

They were only getting his hopes up, they couldn’t possibly mean anything with their words. Friends called friends pretty all the time; Minho had called Woojin pretty just the other day. Plus, him being the _prettiest_ in any conversation where either of the other two boys were involved? There was no way that they were serious. It was just reassurance via lies, lies which would build up Felix’s hope only to shatter his soul when eventually, _inevitably_ , they explicitly stated their purely platonic intentions.

 

He couldn’t think, not with how his heart wanted to escape the confines of his chest with how fast it was thundering against his ribs. He couldn’t _breathe_.

 

Now that he understood his anxiety, unlike when he was younger, Felix could recognise the telltale signs of a panic attack. Worried that he’d end up saying or doing something he’d regret whilst in the throes of it, he knew he had to remove himself from the situation as fast as he could. After all, the only other option was to let it all out and tell them how he felt. That was the far more terrifying option of the two, one which he would _not_ be opting for.

 

“I-I have to go. I forgot that, uh, Chan needs me. He needs me at home immediately sorry I’ll text you later we can finish this another time,” Felix told them in one long incoherent rush of words, shaking them off him and dropping their hands from his.

 

“Felix, wait!” one of them called after him as he fled from Hyunjin’s room, but he was already running.

 

\----------------

 

Chan hadn’t been over exaggerating that first day when he said his friends just let themselves into his apartment. When a shaking, out of breath Felix arrived back at the apartment he shared with his cousin, neither Chan nor Minho were present. Instead, Woojin was sat on the couch watching their TV, an activity he immediately halted once he looked up and took in Felix’s sorry state.

 

“Felix, what’s wrong?” he asked at once, looking understandably worried. Felix looked like he’d just run through a rainstorm without a coat because, well, he had. “Come sit by the heater, I’ll grab you a blanket and something hot to drink,” he instructed when his question was responded to with silence, shivering and a haunted look in Felix’s eyes.

 

Five minutes later, Felix found himself sat on the floor next to the heater. He’d been helped out of his soaking wet sweater and was wearing one of Chan’s hoodies that had been lying discarded on the sofa. Woojin had wrapped the fluffiest blanket in the house around Felix’s shuddering form before heading through to the kitchen. Felix looked up as he heard him come through into the living room and saw him holding a hot chocolate.

 

“Here you go, Felix sweetheart,” Woojin held out the mug with both hands so that he could take the handle. Once it was safely transferred between them, he sat down on the floor right next to him, Felix automatically cuddling into his side. Out of Chan’s friends, it was certainly Minho and Woojin that he had grown closest to over the month he’d spent in Seoul. “Now, whose lives do I need to destroy?”

 

“Nobody’s,” Felix sniffled. “I’m just stupid, is all. Wanting more than I should.”

 

“Suppose I don’t even need to ask who this is about, then,” sighed Woojin. “I tried to warn you.”

 

“They keep making me think that I have hope,” Felix complained, head on Woojin’s shoulder. “Telling me their life stories and saying that they think I’m pretty and holding my hand and-”

 

“Wait a second,” Woojin cut him off. “Go back a second, they _what_ now?”

 

“They just told me the reason that they got suspended last year and they both held my hand while they were doing it. Then they called me pretty and I ran away…” Felix trailed off, cheeks heating up at Woojin’s incredulous stare.

 

“So both of your crushes trusted you with a secret that they’ve literally told nobody else in the entire university?” Woojin checked, just to make sure that he was hearing him right. Felix nodded.

 

“Yes.”

 

“They held your hand and called you pretty?”

 

“Yes…”

 

“And you _still_ think that you don’t have a chance with them?”

 

“I-I,” Felix stuttered. “I can’t comprehend why they would ever be into me, you know?”

 

“Felix, if anything you’re out of _their_ league, not the other way around,” Woojin tried to reason with his stubborn self-perception. “Hell, if I wasn’t already crushing on- Well, if it weren’t for that I’d probably be into you myself. You’re drop-dead gorgeous, Fe.”

 

So, Woojin was crushing on someone? Apparently someone Felix would know, to boot, given that he had held back from mentioning their name. When he was less in a crisis of his own, he'd give the matter further thought.

 

Felix felt himself blushing even more, never able to respond well to compliments. “I’m nothing much.”

 

“Bullshit.”

 

“But-”

 

“No, Felix. I’m not going to let you say that about yourself,” Woojin refused. “I’ve lost count of the amount of times people have come up to Chan, Minho or I asking about ‘the new kid’ since you arrived. Granted, that’s dimmed down a little since you started hanging around with the campus’ resident scare stories, but my point stands.”

 

Felix’s phone had been buzzing with notifications in his pocket since the second he left Hyunjin’s dorm room. He was too scared to look at them.

 

“You gonna answer those?” Woojin asked, apparently gifted with the ability of telepathy. Reluctantly, Felix retrieved his phone from the rain-dampened pocket of his jeans.

 

**Hyunjin: felix what did we do?**

 

**Changbin: felix are you okay?**

 

**Changbin: please at least let us know u got home ok**

 

**Changbin: lix???**

 

**Felix: i’m fine chan rlly did need me for smth dw haha**

 

“Your ‘platonic buddies’ worried about you?” Woojin asked, one eyebrow raised.

 

“A bit,” Felix reluctantly admitted, turning his phone onto Do Not Disturb mode. “But friends worry about each other, this doesn’t mean anything— you’re worrying about me right now.”

 

“Not the same, Felix, but okay.”

 

At that moment, the door to the flat burst open and in burst Chan, tugging Minho by the hand close behind him. “What’s wrong?” he called out, looking around but not immediately seeing Woojin and Felix as the sofa was hiding the spot on the floor where both sat. Woojin stuck a hand up in the air and waved to reveal their location and the couple came over to join them.

 

“Bro, what happened?” Chan asked. “I just got a cryptic text from Woojinnie saying you were upset.” He then switched to English and spoke softer. _“Is it like this morning again?”_

 

 _“No, nothing along those lines,”_ Felix laughed wryly. _“It seems I have a lot to get upset over these days, huh?”_

 

“So, what did we miss?” This came from Minho, who had dropped Chan’s hand in favour of sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of Felix.

 

“Felix is in full gay panic mode again,” Woojin filled them in. “Our favourite dynamic duo decided to tell him their life story and he freaked out when they called him pretty and ran away.”

 

“But you _are_ pretty,” Minho stated, confused. “Why freak out at the truth?”

 

“Not everyone is as good at taking compliments as you, babe,” Chan reminded him. “Especially not my darling cousin here.”

 

“I suppose you’re right,” Minho admitted. “We’ll work on that, Felix. You nearly put _me_ to shame so I won’t have you underestimating your visuals.”

 

“I wouldn’t go _that_ far but Felix does share my genetics so he’s done alright in the looks department,” Chan joked, lightening the mood a little. “You, however, are beautiful.”

 

“I know I am,” Minho brushed him off, blushing all the while despite himself. Pausing, he leaned in conspiratorially. “So, is the backstory as horrifying as the rumours would have us believe?”

 

“Minho!” Chan smacked his boyfriend on the arm. “You can’t ask him that.”

 

“Why?” Minho pouted. “We all wanted to ask.”

 

“No, it isn’t,” Felix replied. “But that’s all you’re getting until you befriend them yourselves. They’re worth it, I promise.”

 

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Chan replied skeptically. “I gotta admit, I still get worried about you being around those two.”

 

 _They’re worth it, I promise_.

 

From the moment Felix had said that, he couldn’t help but feel rather hypocritical. After all, he’d just run away from the two of them without even giving them a chance to explain themselves. The thought of him returning, however, was laughable. He could barely summon up the courage to talk to them at the best of times, let alone when he’d just run away without explanation. His fingers itched to open his phone and check his messages.

 

“Felix,” said Woojin, as soft as if he were talking to a cornered animal. “Why don’t you invite them to come sit with us tomorrow? Maybe we can see something that you can’t— we’ll at least be able to give you more of a rounded opinion.”

 

“And I promise to stop Chan from jumping them,” Minho promised sweetly. “Unless they do anything to hurt you, at which point I’ll be joining them.”

 

“Not really helping convince him, Minho,” Woojin sighed deeply. “Just ignore him. Please consider it, though?”

 

Felix reluctantly agreed to give it some thought, excusing himself to his room with a still half-full mug of hot chocolate. Once alone, door closed behind him, he finally allowed himself to check his messages once more.

 

**Hyunjin: if u say so, angel**

 

**Hyunjin: plspls let us know if we weirded u out or anything we would never want that**

 

**Changbin: yh if there’s been a misunderstanding we can sort it out :((**

 

**Changbin: we always want u 2 b comfortable around us <33**

 

Steeling himself, Felix wrote out a response, using only his pointer finger to type as to delay it a little further.

 

**Felix: dw really!! <33 **

 

**Felix: on another note**

 

**Hyunjin: yes?**

 

**Felix: u don’t have to but would u like to come sit w my friends n me at lunch tmo??**

 

**Felix: they rlly wanna meet u hHH don’t feel pressured to tho i’m sorry :((**

 

**Hyunjin: no :(( from u allowed in this house !! of course we can**

 

**Changbin: anything for u lix consider us there**

 

**Felix: (ღˇᴗˇ)｡o**

 

**Changbin: how. are u so cute**

 

**Hyunjin: ur gonna give us a heart attack lixie pls**

 

**Felix: meet u outside the dining hall at lunch tmo?**

 

**Changbin: ofc**

 

**Hyunjin: we’ll b there <33**

 

**Felix: okay gnight :)**

 

**Changbin: night <33**

 

**Hyunjin: sleep well!! <333333333333**

 

**Changbin: stop outdoing me smh**

 

**Changbin: <333333333333333333333333333333**

 

Felix threw his phone to the other end of his bed, refusing to look at it again lest his heart actually beat right out of his ribcage.

 

Would he ever understand what was going on between them?

 

\----------------

 

The following morning, Felix wandered into the lounge area and discovered Woojin asleep on their couch. Figuring the other would wake up eventually however hard he tried to be quiet, Felix clattered about the kitchen as he would any other day. It was rare that Chan wouldn’t be up before him, so he guessed Minho had probably stayed the night. Only Minho clinging to him in the morning had proved effective at keeping Chan in bed past about 6AM.

 

Sure enough, about ten minutes into him cooking a fry up breakfast with the help of Woojin —he had indeed woken up when Felix started making noise— Chan and Minho stumbled blearily into the kitchen and went about making coffee for the four of them. Minho was wearing one of Chan’s most oversized shirts, which completely drowned his smaller frame, and a pair of his shorts with the drawstring tied as tightly as it would go, bunching in the centre a little. Even Felix could see that he looked adorable, Woojin at his side looking on the verge of cooing at the sight.

 

Felix and Woojin served up and the four of them sat together comfortably eating and drinking their coffee before heading off to shower and get ready. At 9:15 they all set off to the university together— Felix had a 10am seminar, as did Woojin and Chan. Minho wasn’t officially starting until midday but was going to go make use of a practice room for a couple of hours.

 

Just before they all parted ways for their classes, Felix blurted out that Changbin and Hyunjin would be joining them for lunch and rushed away before any of them could respond. He’d deliberately timed it as such, not wanting to go through round upon round of questions so early in the morning. As he turned the corner away from them, he could faintly hear the trio discussing something, likely what he’d just told them. Forcibly clearing his mind of said subject, Felix went to class.

 

Through a combination of willpower, denial and having to concentrate on the lecture (lest the professor call him out for daydreaming as he had another student before), Felix didn’t think about Changbin or Hyunjin for the next two hours. Perhaps once or twice, but he pushed it away. As impressed as he was with himself, the consequent backlog of thoughts about the couple resulted in a veritable _flood_ of them the second he stepped out of the two-hour seminar.

 

They normally ate at quarter past, give or take five to ten minutes, and Felix’s lecture had been about a ten minute walk away across campus. Therefore, when he arrived outside the dining hall, two people were stood there waiting for him. Looking past them, he delayed meeting their eyes for a few more precious seconds. He saw that Chan, Minho and Woojin had already snagged a table and from the looks of it Jisung was in the middle of getting food.

 

At last, he had to look at them. Changbin and Hyunjin were, as always, a sight to behold.

 

Changbin had clearly just redone the slits in his eyebrows that morning, the edges looking particularly clean with the metal bar glinting next to them. His eyes themselves were highlighted with a touch of dark liner and his lids shimmered with smokey eyeshadow. Felix’s mouth went dry as he took in both his makeup and, god, his _outfit._ Changbin was wearing a red leather jacket adorned with multiple silver zips, more than necessary, that had clearly been added for decorative purposes. It worked— he looked _unreal_. Beneath the jacket was a black t-shirt, paired with stupidly tight and considerably ripped grey jeans. He wasn’t the only half of the couple who’d put in effort for his appearance, Felix was soon to notice.

 

Hyunjin had dressed quite differently to his boyfriend, but still looked just as incredible. The hoodie he was wearing was a very dark shade of green and looked like it had been attacked by a dog with how ripped it was all over. Somehow, this still looked fashionable beyond belief, slivers of skin exposed all up his arms. He’d paired it with what looked like leggings underneath the hoodie, which reached down to his mid-thighs. His eye makeup was done pretty similarly to Changbin’s, Felix barely having a single moment to take that in as said eyes met his in a near challenging gaze. Hyunjin had obviously noticed Felix blatantly giving him the once-over. He quirked a brow, one hand reaching up to fiddle with a long chain dangling from his ear.

 

“Hey Lixie,” he greeted him with a smile that was more practiced innocence than genuinely so. Felix had learnt to tell the difference where those two were concerned. “Shall we?”

 

Felix walked over to the pair. Hyunjin was holding Changbin’s hand with one of his, but he looped the other through the crook of Felix’s elbow, linking their arms as he and Changbin held their heads high, following him into the dining hall. Chan looked up, nudging Woojin and Minho either side of him. Minho smiled widely, far more so than his partner, waving enthusiastically at the trio as they made their way to the lunch table.

 

Changbin and Hyunjin sat themselves either side of Felix, Hyunjin next to Minho and Changbin briefly having an empty seat next to him before it was filled by a confused, slightly wary looking Jisung.

 

“Uh, hello?” he said to Changbin. Perhaps ‘slightly’ wary had been an understatement. From the look on Jisung’s face, the boy seemed convinced that Changbin was about to attack him in broad daylight.

 

“Hi,” Changbin replied pleasantly. Jisung relaxed a little, but still sat far closer to the edge of his seat than he usually would. Felix suspected he was subconsciously preparing for a quick escape were either Changbin or Hyunjin to pull a gun. As ridiculous as said scenario seemed to Felix himself, he knew that his friends didn’t know them nearly as well. Not at all, really.

 

“It’s great to meet you at last!” Woojin was next to speak, beaming welcomingly. “It’s great to see you other than briefly passing each other in the corridors— Felix has told us so much about you two.”

 

“Has he now?” Hyunjin replied, the uncomfortable look on his face giving way to one of amusement. Felix wasn’t sure which he preferred, to be honest.

 

“What tales could you have been telling, sweetheart...” Changbin mused. “Nothing too bad, I hope?”

 

“U-Uh,” Felix tried, and failed, to respond.

 

“No worries,” Minho assured them, smirk of his own in place as he observed the dynamic between the three of them. “All _glowing_ reviews.”

 

“Minho!” Felix complained, Woojin joining in laughing at his expense. “Please don’t listen to them,” he groaned, already embarrassed beyond belief not five minutes in. Minho meeting Changbin and Hyunjin was apparently a deadly combination when it came to Felix getting any peace.

 

“Oh, but this conversation is so much fun,” Hyunjin pouted.

 

Jisung gave him a befuddled look. He seemed to have built up quite the scary picture in his head of the two newcomers, one which was clearly not matching up to how they were acting in real life. Big frightening gangsters who reportedly dealt drugs and kicked kittens didn’t pout cutely like Hyunjin did. All around them, people in the dining hall were wearing similar expressions to Jisung— Changbin and Hyunjin’s carefully crafted image was on the verge of coming crashing down.

 

Felix leant over to Changbin, figuring Jisung next to him was less likely to listen in than Minho at Hyunjin’s side. “Are you sure about this?” he asked him in a whisper, lips close to his ear but too anxious about other things to make much note of their proximity. Changbin didn’t seem to understand. “Are you sure you want people to know you aren’t as bad as you’ve let them think?”

 

Now understanding, Changbin smiled at him, a sight so radiant that it short-circuited Felix’s brain for a moment, barely realising that the other boy was leaning up to speak in a similarly soft tone until _there he was_. “This is worth it,” he replied, visibly amused as Felix shuddered a little.

 

Chan hadn’t spoken until then.

 

“So, Hwang,” he began. “Felix tells me you’re choreographing together, but he hasn’t said much otherwise. What sort of dance is it?”

 

With that, the topic shifted to more casual trains of conversation. Felix recognised Chan’s deliberate subject change for what it was —a reprieve for his younger cousin— and sent him a grateful look.

 

Small talk about classes continued for quite some time, Jisung visibly more comfortable with the couple’s presence as each second went by. Eventually, he even started joining in without flinching every time they looked his way.

 

Felix noticed Woojin typing something on his phone, his own vibrating seconds later by no coincidence, given that the older was looking at him expectantly. Wary of what it could possibly be, he tried to tilt his screen so that neither Changbin or Hyunjin could see it. This was no small feat, given that they had shifted while talking so that they were both practically draped over him.

 

**Woojinnie <33: u have nothing to worry abt felix**

 

**Woojinnie <33: they could not b more obviously into u**

 

**Woojinnie <33: go get em**

  


“Are you alright, Lixie?” asked Hyunjin worriedly. “You’ve gone bright red, is everything okay?”

 

“Yes e-everything’s fine, just a bit warm is all,” he laughed nervously. His phone buzzed again, this time due to Minho, who he hadn’t noticed typing as he was obscured partly by Hyunjin.

 

**minminminnie: hey rmr our talk abt polyam**

 

**minminminnie: how bout u go put that into practice**

 

**minminminnie: wasn’t sure from what u told us before but u have clearly been leaving**

**some stuff out cause they’re #whipped**

 

**minminminnie: seriously go be gay do crime**

 

Felix felt his face grow even warmer, something he’d thought impossible given just how flustered he already was. Chan, looking concerned, stood up and suggested that Felix go take a walk outside with him to get some air and cool down.

 

“Don’t worry, we can take him!” Hyunjin quickly offered. Chan gave Felix a look, checking that he was okay with that turn of events, then sat back down, the trio rising together in his place.

 

Felix had become so accustomed to the stares and whispers as of late that he had pretty much tuned them out altogether. As such, he didn’t notice the veritable uproar that filled the hall as he left with the two of them holding his hands.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank u for reading!!!! this is about to hit 2k reads and 300 kudos i'm y e l l i n g !! thank u all so much :') i've loved reading and replying to so many lovely comments as well!!! please continue to let me know what u think, love u all sm!! the next part will be the finale, but not the last you'll see of this au-verse perhaps?? thoughts on a changjin high school prequel and a woojin based sequel? lmk either in the comments or on twitter @spearachas 
> 
> <333


	5. finale.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Were we pretty, baby?"

_Felix had become so accustomed to the stares and whispers as of late that he had pretty much tuned them out altogether. As such, he didn’t notice the veritable uproar that filled the hall as he left with the two of them holding his hands._

 

\----------------

 

When he was younger, one of Felix’s friends had called him weird. It’d happened multiple times, but that instance was brought about by a Twilight marathon and the time-old question of ‘Team Edward or Team Jacob’. He’d put forth the opinion that Bella should’ve just dated both of them.

 

“As if you’d do that in her situation,” Lola had scoffed, swatting him on the arm.

 

Well, yes, he would have. Why not?

 

When he’d said so, she’d laughed and told him that you couldn’t date more than one person. He’d assumed from then on that her words rang true. Until that conversation with Minho, at least.

 

_Just the same as a two person relationship, only there’s three of them._

 

It made perfect sense, now that someone had just told him it was okay. Whether Changbin and Hyunjin actually _wanted_ that from him was another matter entirely, but Felix hoped so. They were holding his hands of their own volition, so that was surely a good start. He hadn’t really noticed them linking their fingers with his at first, but once he had it was all he _could_ notice.

 

Both their hands were larger than his, considerably so seeing as his were tiny. Hyunjin must have had something close to 5cm on him, yet he couldn’t find it in himself to get embarrassed. He was far more preoccupied with how nice it felt.

 

They walked in comfortable silence, though the groups of people they passed paid no such respect to the trio. The sight of Hyunjin and Changbin holding one hand each of the pretty transfer student had many whipping out cellphones to snap a picture. There had been rumors about them, sure, but such blatant displays of affection would spread like wildfire. For once, his two companions could not care less about the unwanted attention focused upon them. All they acknowledged was the boy held between them.

 

Though he’d been the recipient of their undivided attention several times before, Felix still shivered a little under their heavy gaze. Given that both were touching him, they definitely felt it.

 

“Cold, Lixie?” Hyunjin teased, a glint in his eyes showing that he _knew._

 

“N-No,” he replied, pouting when Changbin laughed softly at his stuttered response.

 

“Don’t pout, baby,” Changbin complained. “You’re already far too cute - it isn’t fair to add to that.”

 

“Changbin has always been the cutest one in our relationship,” Hyunjin noted. “I think he has a worthy challenger in you.”

 

“You only say that because he’s never seen me do aegyo,” Changbin refuted. “Baby Changbin is the cutest, isn’t he, Lixie?” he asked, raising the pitch of his voice and pouting, wide-eyed and _adorable_.

 

_What the fuck?_

 

“Definitely cuter, yes,” he conceded weakly, voice about to give way and heart rate out of control.

 

“Ha!” Changbin exclaimed, sticking his tongue out at Hyunjin.

 

“I’ll just go with you both being very cute.”

 

“I can live with that if I must,” huffed Changbin dramatically. “Our Lix does give me a run for my money.” He punctuated his words by pinching Felix’s cheek with his free hand. “Adorable.”

 

“So where are we going?” Felix abruptly changed the topic.

 

“We’d happily go anywhere in the whole world with you, but there is one place in particular we’d love to show you,” Hyunjin told him sweetly, smiling so cutely that Felix could look at nothing else for the rest of his life without complaint.

 

“Ah! So cheesy, Jinnie!” Changbin groaned, reaching over Felix to hit his boyfriend in the chest.

 

“What can I say? Felix brings it out in the best of us.”

 

“Can’t argue with that logic. Anyway, here we are!” Changbin exclaimed excitedly, speeding up and tugging the others along with his movement.

 

They had reached an archway covered in climbing ivy. It led into a small, self-contained garden. Given the time of year, not too many flowers remained in bloom. Those that did, however, were beautiful in their rarity.

 

A combination of walls and shrubbery closed off the garden from the outside world from all sides excluding the gap created by the archway at the entrance. They walked past the fountain in the centre and over to a wooden bench.

 

“It’s always pretty quiet here, especially at this time of year,” Hyunjin said softly as Felix’s eyes roamed around the vicinity, taking it all in. “But Binnie and I come here when we want to think.”

 

“We came here not long after you joined the university,” Changbin added. “We certainly had a lot of thinking to do when you showed up, that’s for sure…”

 

“But why would y-” Felix began to question.

 

Changbin stopped his words. “We’ll explain all of it now, angel, we promise. Just hear us out before you run for the hills, yeah?”

 

Felix nodded, forcing his wildly spinning mind to _focus_ so that he didn’t miss a word of what was to come.

 

“When we same here last, both Jinnie and I had been feeling very confused about something- someone. _You_.”

 

“You see, Lixie, we’d both been happily together for over two years when you arrived. Don’t get me wrong, that has not changed, won’t ever change, if I have anything to do with it,” Hyunjin said with a fond smile.

 

“Nor I,” Changbin blushed, love shining from his every expression.

 

“However,” Hyunjin went on, squeezing Felix’s hand. “From the moment we first ran into you - or you into us in Binnie’s case - we couldn’t get you out of our minds. Ever in sync, we both came here. Changbin was already sat at this very bench when I turned up on my own to sort out my thoughts.”

 

“I thought he’d come to get me. I wondered if I’d missed a date, even. It wouldn’t have surprised me if something slipped my mind in that period of overthinking,” Changbin admitted. “Imagine my surprise at _his_ surprise at seeing me here.”

 

“The fact that both of us had come separately to our thinking spot was clearly indicative that a talk was long overdue. We were both scared that the other would hate us for how we felt about you.”

 

Something in Felix clicked into place.

 

He hadn’t been imagining things out of hope and stupidity. There was no way to misinterpret what Hyunjin had just admitted to him.

 

“Feelings for me?” he asked just the same.

 

“Yes. Feelings for you,” Changbin repeated. “For the first few days, I wasn’t too worried. Of course I found you attractive —anyone in their right mind would— but usually that would be where it stopped. Jinnie and I don’t get jealous about stuff like that; sometimes we’ve even indulged in a mutual attraction at parties.”

 

Sometimes _plural?_ Changbin and Hyunjin’s makeout session with another guy hadn’t been a one time thing, so it seemed. Felix’s pulse thrummed against his skin, face flushing at the thought. Were both his hands not being held, he’d have used them to cover his reddening cheeks and hide the incriminating blush.

 

Hyunjin noticed, smirk tugging at his lips despite the serious situation.

 

“Then, it went beyond merely face value. Once we started talking to you more, we started to actually like you in ways we thought we shouldn’t given that we were taken already. When Jinnie and I talked it over, though, we came to a much more agreeable conclusion. Why deny what both of us wanted?” Changbin reasoned, thumb rubbing steadily against the back of Felix’s hand. “We wanted to make absolutely sure that you felt the same before making a move into such foreign territory.”

 

“So we’re sorry for teasing, baby,” Hyunjin apologised, not looking all that sorry at all. “But it is _so_ pretty when you blush,” he added, raising Felix’s hand up to drop a kiss on their intertwined fingers. “Exactly,” he smiled, poking Felix’s cheek as it heated up in response. “Point proven.”

 

“Are you really saying what I think you're saying right now?” Felix needed them to clarify. He’d say it was so he didn’t get his hopes up, but they’d already skyrocketed. “Please, for once, be completely clear with m-”

 

His voice was cut off as Changbin tilted his head and brought Felix’s face down to kiss him.

 

It was slow and gentle as could be yet it _burned_ from the inside out. Felix was simultaneously floating and on fire, aching from the culmination of so much pent up longing. Changbin was everything he’d hoped he would be and more, better than Felix could have ever imagined.

 

When Changbin pulled back, Felix chased his lips with a whine. He wasn’t anywhere near finished with him after waiting so torturously long to get to this place.

 

Hyunjin had other ideas.

 

“Baby, you’re not going to let Binnie have him all to himself, are you?” he sighed over-dramatically. “Can’t believe this disrespect from both of my -” he paused, thoughtful. “Well, I suppose we never got to that part before Changbin there came swooping in. Will you be our boyfriend, Lixie?”

 

Rather than answer verbally, Felix opted for a far more enjoyable alternative, kissing the pout off Hyunjin’s plush lips.

 

He felt completely different to Changbin, the two of them not better nor worse than one another but instead complimentary. His lips were fuller and more insistent, tongue swiping at Felix’s bottom lip playfully as the younger gasped a little against his mouth. His lip ring felt cold at first, an unfamiliar sensation which Felix wasn’t _remotely_ complaining about.

 

They parted eventually, both catching their breath, and Felix caught Changbin watching them, his eyes darkened.

 

“Were we pretty, baby?” Hyunjin asked innocently.

 

“Do you even have to- of course you were. The prettiest sight of my life,” he replied, voice low and just overall so attractive that Felix couldn’t help but kiss him again. This time was less tentative than the first, Felix surprising even himself as he deepened the kiss.

 

“We’ll have to agree to disagree, Binnie,” Hyunjin noted, his voice sounding far away as all Felix felt was Changbin, Changbin, _Changbin_. “This has to be a better view than any other. Though… maybe our Lixie would disagree - he did seem to love the view that he had from the doorway of our practice room.”

 

This, Felix did register, embarrassed at the memory even though he was _literally_ kissing Changbin. He pulled away to glare at Hyunjin. “Did you really have to remind me about that? Did you _really?_ ”

 

“Oh… The sight wasn’t so bad, was it, sweetheart?” Changbin teased. “Would you not like to see it again?”

 

Felix went against his first, predictable _,_ instinct, which was to stammer and blush as per usual. Instead, he levelled his gaze to meet Changbin’s and spoke slowly, deliberately. “Well I wouldn’t say _no_ …”

 

Changbin gasped. “Felix! What have we done to our poor innocent, corruptible angel?” He turned, obviously expecting Hyunjin to voice something similar.

 

Hyunjin was looking at his boyfr - his Changbin. _Felix couldn’t use the words so interchangeably now that he, too, fit into said category._ The look in Hyunjin’s eyes made Felix shiver even though he wasn’t currently being held under his gaze.

 

“What?” Changbin asked, voice a little unstable.

 

“You heard our boy,” Hyunjin told him, standing up and walking around Felix to stand in front of Changbin. “Let’s give him a show.” Felix wasn’t sure which made his chest ache more, being called _their boy_ or what happened next.

 

Definitely what happened next.

 

Hyunjin pulled Changbin up from the bench by the neck of his shirt and stopped just short of kissing him to look at Felix and wink.

 

Changbin impatiently tangled his fingers in Hyunjin’s hair and closed the gap between them. Clearly he’d taken Felix’s want to relive the practice room incident quite seriously as he walked Hyunjin backwards, not once breaking apart, until he was pressed up against the wall by the beach.

 

They kissed for so long that Felix would have almost thought they’d forgotten he was there, were it not for Hyunjin opening his every so often to watch Felix while still kissing Changbin deeply. When he’d first considered a three person relationship he had worried about feeling left out; this was far from it. Getting to watch his two incredibly attractive boyfriends making out with each other against a wall was hardly an unpleasant experience for Felix.

 

Despite them standing the same, _kissing_ the same as they had in the practice room, the situation could not have been more different for Felix. Instead of the shock, embarrassment and disappointment that had flooded him that day, he felt another sort of longing. This kind was pleasurable even as it burned him because, despite it all, he had them to himself now. He hadn’t thought such circumstances could or would ever come to be, yet they had. Felix couldn’t be happier.

 

As nice as the sight most certainly was, after a short while Felix wanted a more active role in the proceedings.

 

Hyunjin jumped a little as he reached past Changbin and tapped him on the shoulder, his eyes having long fluttered shut after his last lingering look at Felix. “Hello, Lixie,” he greeted him breathily. Felix had another practice room flashback.

 

“Jinnie,” replied Felix, fighting everything in his nature to stay calm and appear confident. This was new to him, after all. “Mind if I cut in?”

 

“Be my guest,” Hyunjin readily agreed, moving a little to lean lazily against the wall, watching as Changbin pushed Felix up against it.

 

\--------------

 

Felix, for lack of a better word, looked absolutely _wrecked_ when Changbin and Hyunjin dropped him off outside the apartment he shared with Chan. His hair, though unstyled, had certainly not been so messy that morning, nor his lips so swollen and red. With one last long, drawn out kiss with each of them, he left his boyfriends (his _boyfriends_ ) behind and walked up the steps to his home.

 

When he let himself in, Chan, Minho, and Woojin were waiting for him. They had clearly been trying to distract themselves with a program none were watching. As soon as the door opened, Chan grabbed the remote and shut it off. “Felix! Did everything go okay?...” he asked, then trailed off into silence as he took in Felix’s appearance. “Never mind. Tell me nothing. I do _not_ want to know.”

 

Chang walked off into the kitchen, muttering under his breath about “My baby cousin” and “Shouldn’t have let them near him.” Minho, however, jumped up and ran over to Felix, grabbing his cheeks and cooing.

 

“Little Felix _pulled!”_ he exclaimed proudly. “I knew you had it in you— if in doubt, polyamory is the way to go. I told you they liked you!”

 

“So you did it then?” asked Woojin in a calmer tone, eyes sparkling as he smiled at the two of them. “Got your boys?”

 

“Yeah, I did. How can both of you tell so easily, though? And why is Chan being so weird?” Felix questioned.

 

“Felix my darling, my beautiful sweet summer child…” Minho said in a despairing tone, patting him on the head and ruffling his messy hair. “We all know what someone looks like when they’ve been making out for hours. You could not be a more obvious case.”

 

Numbly, Felix raised a hand to his bruised lips. “Oh.”

 

“So how was it?” Minho called after him as he rapidly retreated to the safety of his bedroom.

 

“Not talking about this with you!” he yelled back over his shoulder, pulling his phone from his pocket.

 

**Felix: already getting the third degree from minho smh**

 

**Jinnie ♡: poor baby :((**

 

**Binnie ♡: see u tomorrow? :)**

 

**Jinnie ♡: not to be dramatic but maybe we miss you already**

 

**Jinnie ♡: <33**

 

**Felix: see u in dance jinnie <33 n see u both in vocal**

 

**Binnie ♡: and at lunch if we’re welcome again?.. we did kinda steal u today**

 

**Felix: believe me, i didn’t mind**

 

**Jinnie ♡: we know xoxo**

 

**Felix: (〃▽〃)**

 

**Binnie ♡: cute**

 

**Jinnie ♡: the cutest**

 

**Binnie ♡: …**

 

**Felix: he’s right binnie is the cutest**

 

**Binnie ♡: get u a boy who knows what’s right <33**

 

**Jinnie ♡: u don’t need to lie lixie u already got him**

 

**Felix: in that case**

 

**Felix: jinnie is the cutest**

 

**Binnie ♡: fuck u both**

 

\--------------

 

It took at least a week for Chan to finally warm to the idea of Felix’s new relationship. Felix supposed it could have been worse. Less preoccupied than he had been for a long while, Felix found that conversations with his cousin’s wider friendship group flowed far more freely. He soon grew far closer with Jisung, Seungmin and Jeongin than he had been the whole time he’d spent at the university.

 

Jeongin kept trying (and failing) to get then to call him I.N. His perseverance, at least, was something to be admired. Jisung, in response, jokingly tried to persuade the group to use his last name as his first. Jeongin sulked for days when everyone immediately went with it.

 

Jisung told them all about the tracks he was producing, not-so-subtly hinting that he wanted Chan to help him out with a couple of them. Chan was somewhat of a big name in the music department, and in high demand to mentor younger students. Luckily for Jisung, he managed to snag friendship privileges— both Chan _and_ Changbin agreed to go over the songs with him. He immediately started heavily implying that he wanted them to feature on them too. Neither were particularly enthused by the idea, but Felix knew they'd cave eventually.

 

\--------------

 

“How did you deal with it?” Woojin asked him one day while they watched TV. Chan and Minho were out somewhere, so him and Felix were just chilling back at the flat.

 

“Deal with what?” Felix replied. Woojin’s question was quite out of the blue - they’d been pretty much zoned out watching reruns in silence for the past hour.

 

“Never mind.”

 

“You can’t just start something like that and then leave me hanging!” Felix protested, smacking Woojin on the arm playfully.

 

“Fine.” he relented. “I was just curious, is all - how did you deal with having a crush on two guys? Was that not confusing to you?”

 

“I mean _yes_ ,” Felix said slowly. “And you saw me. I didn’t remotely deal with it, I just lucked out when they confessed first.” Then he turned in his seat to properly look at his friend. “Wait, why are you asking? Do you have a crush on two guys or someth-”

 

“No!” Woojin interrupted far too quickly.

 

_Interesting._

 

\--------------

 

Changbin may or may not have cried at Felix and Hyunjin’s dance performance. However, so did Chan in the seat next to him. Felix smiled softly from the side of the stage, watching his Changbin and his cousin bond over a shared packet of tissues. His other boyfriend joined him, wrapping his arms around Felix’s waist from behind.

 

He leant back into his embrace. “Hey, Jinnie. Good work today,” he murmured, feeling soft lips kiss his hair.

 

“Not as amazing as you, Lixie,” Hyunjin replied at once. He leant his head on Felix’s shoulder. Felix could feel him smiling against his neck as he continued. “You outshine the stars.”

 

Wrapped up in each other, they hadn’t noticed Changbin leave his seat and head backstage. He was ushered through by Woojin, a volunteer to help organise the short-staffed showcase.

 

“I wonder if a day will ever pass when you don’t say something ridiculously sappy, baby,” Changbin said, curling into Hyunjin’s side even as he teased him.

 

“You know you do it just as much in your own way. There’s a plethora of your sappy moments I could bring up when you want above and beyond, darling, don’t you forget,” Hyunjin warned. “Besides, you love me - deal with it.”

 

“Indeed I do,” Changbin agreed.

 

Felix realised, out of nowhere, that _so did he_. He loved them both so _so_ much.

 

Once he’d come to this realisation he wanted to blurt it out right there and then, but Woojin showed up and shooed them away so the stage could be cleared.

 

 _I love you_ , he wanted to say as they both took one of his hands in theirs. They always did that now. It meant he could no longer text and walk, but that was a minor sacrifice.

 

“What’re you thinking about so hard, angel?” Changbin asked as they left the hall.

 

“You,” Felix replied easily.

 

“You’re as bad as Hyunjin.”

 

“And what about it?”

 

\--------------

 

Felix brought them to their garden that evening. Changbin cried for the second time that day when he _told them_ , illuminated by the light of the setting sun. Were his own cheeks not wet with tears, perhaps Hyunjin would have teased him.

 

He kissed them both.

 

“I love you,” he told them again and again like a broken record, unable to stop now he’d started.

 

“You need to chill with that or we’ll never stop crying,” Hyunjin said with no real weight in his words. “Love you too, beautiful.”

 

_“My losers.”_

 

_“Always yours, Lixie.”_

 

_“Forever.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for reading this and commenting, leaving kudos etc!!! (those are still very much appreciated) (please validate me i wrote this entire chapter out longhand and my best friend typed it up for me because my laptop broke) (said best friend is also typing this author's note right now btw and personally i think she deserves a lot of love but that may just be me idk)
> 
> hit me up on twitter @spearachas and let me know your thoughts!!!
> 
> if u don't have twitter or if u wanna b anon then: curiouscat.me/19990811 (yes that is changbin's birthday i'm whipped)
> 
> okay this is finally over but!!!! keep your eyes peeled for the sequel and prequel (would recommend following my ao3)
> 
> love u all thank u for joining me on this journey ok bye

**Author's Note:**

> heyyy!!!!! you have the lovely ashtin to thank for this, cause she posted this tweet (https://twitter.com/lovelyjjix/status/1063663323022020608) and thus this,, mess was born. anyway this is kinda her christmas present i guess so hope u enjoy ash!!
> 
> @ everyone else pls hmu on twitter @spearachas!! and comment plsplspls i thrive off comments. kudos also make me go <3333


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